#but yeah anyways. i just need something to shake my life from its pedestal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

downywrites · 3 years

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Did I post this before?…Birb can’t remember.

Purpled plays a game of bedwars with Techno, but gets a little over his head with it. (ah shit, here we go again)

He swung his legs back and forth on one of Hypixel’s waiting benches, watching players fight and quarrel on the islands in the distance. The feeling of the splintering wood underneath him made him wince as he shifted a bit. Purpled sighed, leaning his head on his hands. Notch, I’m so bored. Why does everyone suck today? He felt a tug of temptation to join them, to slaughter them with the edge of his sword and the silver spark of his witty remarks. He waved it off, shaking his head a little. I can’t do that, not today. I’m waiting for him. Him...His eyes unfocused, thinking about the man he was to spar with today. Technoblade. He’s well-lauded and all that, but is he really that good? I mean, I know he was good back in the day, but things are different. So different. He focused back to see one of the people on the island getting yelled at. He leaned in, looking at the player closely. Noticing an illegal weapon on him, he shook his head, tutting quietly. “Jeez, you’d think that they would know to not cheat in such a public place.” A rough, ragged voice spoke up behind him. “You’d think so. They ain’t that smart, though.”

He yelped, turning to look at the offender. Purple eyes met crimson. Purpled jumped off the bench, stumbling a little bit. “W-wha? How did you get here so fast? I didn’t-” “Hear me? Of course you wouldn’t hear me. I prefer not to be heard, Purpled. That’s the warrior’s way.” After his brief startle, he collected himself almost immediately, looking at the hulking piglin hybrid up and down. The two of them were very close to one another- he could hear the heavy breathing of the warrior and the small snuffling noises he was making in between breaths. He glanced at his face for a moment, a sudden wave of shyness overcoming his usually witty and snarky personality. He stuttered a little as he spoke. “S-so! How did you get all this gold? I thought you couldn’t bring in things you didn’t find from Hypixel.”

The bigger of the two grinned a little, tusks shining an off-white in the sunlight. “I found it here too. Got them from unlucky people who got in my way. They were annoying anyways. Shouldn’t have waved gold in the piglin’s face.” He pointed towards the bedwars pedestal. “Are we going to do this or what?” The younger bedwars player’s mind swirled in confusion. What was he saying? Was he being sarcastic? Mocking? Completely neutral? Dear Notch, I have no clue what he’s thinking. He took an uncertain step towards the statue. More important question. Do I like him? Should- “We can back out if you want. It just means I have a little less blood for me later.” He snapped out of his little trance, looking at the piglin in a mix of annoyance and challenge. The pink-haired warrior dug out something from underneath his nails, leaning on the statue in a pose of pure apathy. He looked at the younger with a look of bored expectancy, a look that he had seen on himself in the mirror on particularly dreary days. He bristled a little, but he knew that it probably wasn’t on purpose. The guy is supposedly not the best at social cues. I’ll just have to bear with it. Bear with it, bear with it…

He gritted his teeth a little. “Yeah, we’ll do this. Let’s go.” He stalked up to the statue, ready to tap it, before a ring-encrusted hand grabbed his wrist. “Before we do.” He held up a small modded enchant book. “Asked the mods if we could do a private, modded match. Makes it more fun.” Purpled snorted, a bit of his normal snarkiness showing through again. “Need a little boost? No probs. Seems fine to me.” Techno grinned again, showing the bottom rows of his teeth in a minorly intimidating gesture. “Whatever you say, kid. Just telling you, this may be one of the more dangerous bonding activities we can do.”

The younger ignored his statement, tapping the statue and setting up a new private match. “Dangerous for you,” he muttered, purple irises flicking back and forth as he read how to add in the mod. Snorting, Techno kneeled down, chains swinging back and forth as he moved. A specific one that hung from his tusk and connected to a clip on his ear caught the boy’s eye. Their eyes met, purple gazing at crimson with the intensity of a man who had seen the furies of war. Techo looked back at the boy with no such idea in mind. He gestured towards the statue. “Ready?” Purpled nodded, eager to begin. His mind whirred to life again, immediately planning out his modes of attack against the piglin. I know this will be hard, but I really, really want to win against him! I heard from Tommy that he was good, but how good? Man, I sure hope that he does something really different than the others!

Techno looked in amusement at the boy. I’m guessing he’s already planning. What did I expect? He is a bedwars player, after all. The thing is, he doesn’t know what the mod that I installed does. He herded the boy, who was certainly still very lost in thought, towards the statue, tapping it on its cap-covered head. As the two warped, Purpled yelped in surprise at the noise. “What?” He looked up at the piglin in astonishment, landing on both feet and stumbling a little as he touched the ground. Techno simply shrugged from across the map, hoping the boy could see him. They both stepped into their respective pickup areas, items making small noises as they picked up the valuables from the ground. Purpled, humming with excitement, was chomping at the bit to get to Techno. I’m not sure if he remembers, but speed is key here. I’ve got to get to mid fast!

He scooped up the gold and iron frantically, running over to the shopkeeper and exchanging items with him quickly. As he ran, he dropped iron bars here and there, making the man snort a little at the bedwars player. He whispered to the other shopkeepers through the corner of his mouth. “That one’s always in a rush, ain’t he? Eccentric one, mi lads. If ya haven’t seen ‘im around, ya missing out. Always got the most fascinatin’ stories to tell in the lounge, ya know.” As the boy ran, placing blocks quickly, he looked out to the piglin’s island, expecting some movement. Nothing. As he reached middle, he gathered the emeralds carefully, glancing out to the island again and again. Nothing. He walked back to his island, whistling a tune. He armored himself and gathered materials. When he peeked out at the island, once again, he saw no activity. No defense, no nothing.

“What is he doing?” He wondered aloud. “What kind of strategy is that?” He walked out fully, looking around in confusion. The second he stepped near to his bed defense, the sound of fabric rustling reached his ears. A pink and red blur pounced on him, pinning him to the slanted fabric. “Gotcha.” A low voice purred beside his ear. The sound of his voice made him shiver. “W-what? How did-” Techno shushed him, continuing to pin the boy to his defense.

Realizing his lack of movement, the astonished boy began to struggle in his hold, pushing against him as much as he could from his pinned position. The piglin growled lowly, pushing him further onto the fabric, his chains hanging over the boy’s neck and ears as he did so. One of the chains, specifically the one that he had his eyes on earlier, scraped ever so slightly over Purpled’s neck, dragging gently over his collarbone. He yelped, struggling a little more to avoid the sensation. Technoblade raised an eyebrow at his reaction. “Oh? Are you ticklish? Didn’t hear Phil tell me ‘bout that.” He stared at the pinned boy beneath him, making him turn away and blush a soft pink. “I-I’m not.” Techno grinned, shifting a little so the chain moved over his neck again. Purpled scrunched up his neck a little, giggling lightly, before looking straight at Techno with wide eyes. “Ihihit’s nohot what it looks like! There was- ack!” The piglin scooped him up with both arms, cradling him lightly, before moving towards the middle of the islands.

With every step he took, Purpled could feel the power and speed in his movements. At one point, he stopped at a large gap, looking down at the void below. The void sparkled lightly, beckoning the two of them into its cold embrace. The piglin stared as if he was entranced, looking at the sparkles for a few minutes too long. Purpled began to wriggle, hoping that the hybrid wouldn’t notice his movements. Techno seemed to pay him no heed, staring at the (decidedly gold-looking) sparkles down below. As he moved, he noticed a small little movement, catching his eye in an instant. Freezing in place, he looked for the movement again, heart in his throat. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he sees Techno’s ear, a little floppy triangle nestled deep in the man’s ponytail, twitch ever so slightly. Purpled sighed lightly in relief, moving to hop out of the piglin’s arms. I thought that was a larger part of him. If it was, I’d be-

One of the hands that held him shifted slightly, making his breath hitch slightly. He looked to his side to see one of his hands shift to keep him pinned in his grasp. “No escaping. Not on my watch.” A large hand grabbed at his side, making him squeak a little. “Oh? Did my little captive just squeak? I thought you weren’t ticklish.” He grabbed at his side again, listening for the telltale squeak. He grinned at the high-pitched giggle he got in response, finally snapping himself out of his daze fully and looking straight at the flustered boy in his arms. “C-captive? I’m a captive?” Ignoring his stuttering protests, the piglin gently squeezed at the boy’s sides, making him squirm and giggle. “Hehehey! Stohop!” “A person who isn’t ticklish wouldn’t say that, would they? I think you might be a little bit of a liar. And you know how liars get punished in our household?” Purpled pushed himself away from his hand as much as he could. “Hohohow?” His hand grabbed firmly at his side, vibrating lightly. “TehehehECHNO!” He leaned down a little bit more, whispering as well as he could into the younger’s ear. “We tickle them.”

The bedwars player would have paled, if his blood would cooperate. Instead, warmth flushed into his face and cheeks as he giggled and pushed at the hand half-heartedly. He knew better than to attempt to escape the piglin, especially since he had seen the man follow that beanie-wearing bird hybrid across the SMP. He had seen just how fast Techno could go. There’s no way out of this, is there? I should have known that he was up to no good. The warrior in question began to move to his own base, hopping from place to place with ease. As the gentle winds buffered at his face, he unconsciously buried his face deeper into Techno’s chest, making the man smile. Why is he so cute? The voices, for once (or twice) in his life, agreed with him readily. E. Technosoft? Technoprotect. Purpled is so cute, aww… He placed blocks as he went, bridging with ease and jumping from area to area as if he was practicing parkour. Maybe this kid wouldn’t be that bad of an addition to the family.. No. I have enough people as it is. As he thought, the boy shifted in his arms, looking up at him with wide eyes. “M-Mr. Techno? Uh..are we there yet?” He looked down to meet his eyes, melting a little at the sight of the kid. “We’re almost there, Purpled.” He ignored the voices’ plea to call him by a nickname or something equally embarrassing.

Come on, Techno. Don’t be a party pooper.

Blood god is soft aww-

Nope. He shook his head, trying to ignore the voices as best he could. Not soft at all. Once he felt the smooth stone of his base below his hooves, he placed the boy on the bed, trusting him not to break it. (Not that he would care, anyways. Technoblade never dies, and that’s a fact.)

He loomed over him, staring down at him. Purpled shrunk away from his stoic gaze, flushing a little more. “Why dihid you bring me here?” Techno smirked from his vantage point, gold-encrusted tusks twinkling like stars among an ebony sky. He leaned down, putting both of his arms on the two sides of the bed, ruffling the sheets gently. “I was told to do a bonding activity with you. And the one that seems to work the best with everyone is tickling them.” Purpled giggled a bit at the word, squirming a bit in excitement fear. “B-but, you said-” “We’d play a game of bedwars? We’re currently on a map, with the same things and circumstances as a bedwars game. Same difference.” He punctuated his words with a quick jab to the boy’s sides, grinning at the resulting squeak. “St-stop! Dohon’t do that!”

Techno ignored him, placing one of his hands over the other’s stomach. He let it rest there, hand and wrist heavy on his tum. Purpled, looking down at the hand from his position, whimpered a little, secretly wanting him to start already. He wasn’t used to this sort of waiting game with virtually anything. But a small part of him was enjoying the slow-paced teasing. After all, it’s not like he gets a lot of time to slow down and relax, after all. He just didn’t expect this hulking piglin to be the one to make him take a chill pill. He tried to slow his breathing, shoulders shuddering lightly as he did so. Techno noticed, corners of his mouth quirking up a bit at the cute sight of the purple-clad boy trying his best to relax his shoulders. “Is something the matter?” he teased, shifting his hand ever-so-slightly from its position on his quivering belly. He squeaked quietly, ears turning a slight shade of red. “I-Its nothing!” He refrained from telling the piglin that he was resting his hand on one of his most sensitive spots. The less he knows, the better.

Techno was unimpressed by his reaction, quirking one wine-colored eyebrow shifting upwards. “Nothing, you say? And what if I do this?” He rubbed lightly over the boy’s stomach, moving in a slow, almost lazy circle. Instantaneously, his ears were blessed by Purpled’s small, bubbly giggles. “Nohoho! Dohohon’t!” Instead of speeding up and ruthlessly wrecking him, the piglin continued to rubs languidly over his tum, wondering how much of the light teasing the usually fast-moving player would be able to handle. The voices agreed with his methods, but stayed unusually quiet.

Tease slow.

Hah, Technoslow.

Technoslow? He ignored the slight ribbing, choosing to whisper quiet teases and rub at him some more. Purpled continued to giggle away, flushing lightly under his scrutinizing gaze. What is he thinking? He’s so serious. Also, is he going to speed up or what? He was beginning to get more and more flustered as he continued to rub the same spot at the exact same speed. He squirmed lightly, trying to push his stomach into his hand, but he pulled away just as much, snorting quietly in mirth. “Getting impatient are we?” “I’m not impatient, you’re just going so slow-” “Want me to go faster? With pleasure.” Techno’s gold-encrusted fingers dug lightly into his ticklish tummy, making the boy yelp and giggle louder. “Ehehehe, Tehehehechno…”

He turned his head away from him, trying to avoid eye contact in his embarrassment. “Is your tum a little bit ticklish, hm? That’s so cute.” Purpled curled up a little bit at that, shaking his head. “Nohohot cuhuhute!” The piglin quickly darted his hand underneath his hoodie, scratching lightly at the sensitive skin on his belly. His laughter went up an octave, bubbly giggles morphing to full blow laughter. “Tehehehechno! Yohohohou- dohohohON’T-”

“Don’t what? Do this?” He traced the outside of the boy’s navel, watching as the boy squirmed and flushed a brighter shade of red. “Yeheheheah! Thahahat!” Techno grinned and sped up his circling, making the boy squeal. “Do that? Alright, Purpled. Whatever you say, kiddo.”

“NoHO, IHIHI SAHAHAID DOHOHON’T!” The piglin pulled his hoodie up fully, exposing his quivering tummy, and nuzzled his face and snout onto the boy’s exposed skin, fluffy cheeks and face making the nuzzles almost torturous to the flustered lee. Purpled all but shrieked, hands flying to Techno’s face and pushing at him as best he could. “NOHOHOHO! PLEHEHEASE!” The boy, flustered as he was, felt a smattering of butterflies in his stomach, ready to take flight. “You like that, kid?” Purpled couldn’t bring himself to say no, nodding through his boisterous laughter. The warrior smiled, nuzzling deeper into the hysterical boy’s tum. “Hey Purpled, what’s your favorite fruit?” Purpled cocked his head a little, confused. “Whahahahat dohoho yohohohou mehehean?” Techno grinned. “Because my favorite fruits are raspberries.” As Techno lifted his head from his tum, he inhaled sharply, before blowing a large raspberry on the prostrate boy’s stomach.

Purpled shrieked, wiggling and pushing at the piglin’s head in hysteria. “EEE! TEHEHECHNOHOHO!” “Yes, Purpled?” “S-SWIHIHITCH SPOHOHOTS!” He quickly shifted to his sides, squeezing and tasering lightly. Almost immediately, his laughter calmed down a little. “Better, kiddo?” “Yehehehes...Th-thahahanks…” The boy flushed from beneath him, looking away from him bashfully. Techno smiled softly at the purity of the kid. He’s so soft and small, isn’t he? Always one to rely on tactics more than brute strength. It’s kind of cute, actually. As he poked and prodded the squirming boy’s sides, he heard a noise akin to a small chirp come out of the boy's mouth. Purpled slapped his hands to his mouth, eyes widening in shock.

Techno slowed down a bit more, prodding at the same spots in an attempt to elicit the same reaction. When he poked a specific spot right beside his ribs, he chirped again, a soft sound that certainly didn’t match with his laughter and stood out like a sore thumb to Techno’s sensitive ears. “Are you a bird hybrid?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Purpled’s facial expression freeze. “No, no I’m not.” “You’re not? Are-” “No. I’m not.” The voice that came out of his mouth seemed robotic, cold, completely different from his normal voice. No teasing or sass tinted his voice. Why is he lying about this? Did someone teach him to do this?

He shifted his hands to his back, feeling for the joints of his wings carefully. He sucked in a breath when he felt wing-binding bandages instead of feathers. “Who did this to you? Who-” “I did.” He looked at his face in shock. “Why would you do this to yourself?” He felt his heart sink into his boots. Purpled’s stony face revealed nothing about his inner emotional state, simply repeating what he had said before in a eerily monotone voice. “I did.” Internalized trauma? I knew there was a reason Phil wanted me to ‘bond’ with him. Jeez, he really needs to tell me what I’m looking for. This is getting ridiculous. Techno gently groped for the end of the binds, loosening them with small, deft movements. Purpled made no move to stop him, blankly staring at him as if he saw nothing. As if he saw nothing and everything at the same time. As if he was stuck in time, he made no noise, not moving from his stock-still position. The warrior’s concern rose as he continued to unwind the binds, weak, dilapidated wings flopping out from their restraints.

Do they even have muscles anymore? That’s going to take quite a while to strengthen. Damn, how long has Purpled bound his wings like this? He poked at one gently, stopping immediately when the boy inhaled sharply at his touch. He knew better than to attempt to help on his own. “I need to get you to Phil. Are you okay with that?” Purpled made no effort to answer him, continuing to stare into space. The voices supplied him with info to fill the gaps.

He’s disassociating.

Kill?

No kill.

His wings are done for.

He shook his head. No, I’m not going to let him lose his wings. Phil and I can still help him, as long as he cooperates. Even though his voices continued to tell him that there was a low chance of giving him back the ability to fly, he scooped the boy up, running over to the exit portal as quickly as he could. He darted through the crowds of people, ignoring the looks that he got in return. He typed in the coordinates he needed to warp to, heart in his throat. This is serious. His wings look as if he hasn’t unbound them for weeks. Did someone force him to do it? Was he on an abusive SMP? So many questions, too little time.

The second the portal let him into the SMP, he pushed through the snow with the urgency of a husky returning home, snow crunching merrily in stark contrast with the flurry of emotions in Techno’s chest. He slammed the door open, hoping that he didn’t break the doorframe in the back of his mind, before calling for Phil. “Phil! Purpled!” Philza climbed down the ladder, smile freezing at the sight of the boy’s emaciated wings. “Oh shit.”

He slid down the rest of the ladder, hopping off with practiced ease. Rushing over to the two of them, he hurriedly scooped up the limp boy, hurrying him to the medical area of the house. He placed the boy down on a medical table, belly down, and took a proper look at the state of the boy’s weakened wings. He pulled one out to its full extension, wincing at the way it moved. He halfheartedly tried to preen the remaining feathers on the wings, gasping quietly as a few feathers came out with the slightest touch. Techno stood to the side, fiddling with his armguards and chains. After a few minutes of horrified silence from the duo, Philza’s strained voice, usually calm and cool under pressure, rang out, echoing slightly in the sterilized area.

“His wings are really weakened. I’m not sure if we can help him.” Techno grunted at that. “No.” Phil turned to look at him fully, surprised. “What do you mean, ‘no’? I can’t-” “I didn’t decide to bond with this small child, try to learn everything about his likes and dislikes, and run with him in my arms across the whole of hypixel for him to lose his wings.” Techno gently pulled out the boy’s wing, tracing a single finger on the areas where muscle should be. He heard a little giggle come from the boy, making him smile a little.

“We can make this work. First things first, I think we need to teach the boy how to be okay with the way he looks. He’s been the one binding, after all.” Philza, still shocked at the idea that Techno made an actual bond with the small, hoodie-wearing bedwars player, nodded slowly, charm string on his bucket hat bouncing slightly. “H-he’s been binding? He was the one binding it?” Techno made no move to answer that. He flipped the boy over onto his back, being very careful of his wings. He began to shake the kid softly, trying to make him snap out of his daze...was it still a daze? He looked at him closer, confused. Could he be asleep? Poking gently at his cheek, he tried to rouse him again, only getting a soft snore in response. Oh yeah, he’s asleep. The voices spoke up again, drowning out all reasonable thought for a moment.

Kill him.

Liability.

No, don’t do that.

Syndicate?

Blood for the blood god.

Kill, kill, kill-

“Stop.” He shook his head, trying to clear his head. “I’m not killing him. No.” “Voices acting up again?” He nodded, not attempting to look at his friend in the eyes, lest he loses focus on his train of thought. Boots click softly on the floor, and suddenly, he feels a warm, comforting blanket of pressure wrap around him. He struggled to control his breathing, shoulders shuddering. The wing wrapped around him curled around him, squeezing him comfortingly. The noise of the voices continued to whisper, making him shiver. I need to control them. I’m not killing him. Phil moved closer to him, trilling at the larger one of the two. “Hey, hey. Listen to me, okay? Techno. You’re fine.” He continued to speak to the man, hoping desperately that he would snap out of it soon.

At this rather inopportune moment, Purpled began to stir, shifting around a little. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up with one arm, yawning a little. “W-wha?” He looked around blearily, confused by the unknown area. His eyes widened a little when he saw Techno, grinning sleepily. Unknowing of the dilemma going on in his head, he moved into the piglin’s line of sight. “Hey, Techno. Thanks for helping me.” He smiled at him, giving him the most charming smile he could .Didn’t want him to be mad at him, no? I mean, this is probably his house. As he looked, he realized that the person beside him had wings too. He looked at the other man, tilting his head slightly in puzzlement. “W-who are you?” He recognized him from the parties and hangouts the SMP would do, but knew nothing else about the man. He’d never seen his wings, either. Did he bind, too?

Techno snapped out of his daze, looking down at the young avian. He grinned back at the kid. “Hey. Good to see you’re awake.” Purpled stared at the older avian’s wings in wonder. He blurted out, “Your wings are so big and pretty, mister...uh…” “Philza.” Phil was already charmed by the little one of the trio. He’s so small! I kind of want to keep him...nope. Not doing that. I already have enough adopted children. Even as he thought that, he continued to internally coo at that younger one, tilting his head at the same angle as the boy. “We need to take care of your wings, mate. You think you can let us do that?” Purpled flinched lightly at the word, but tried his best to stay still. They are trying to help me...right?

Against his better judgement, he queried, “B-but..why do I need my wings, Mr. Philza, Mr.Techno? Why can’t I just...do without? They’re not very useful anyways.” He pulled out one of them with his hands, wincing at the feeling of limp flesh shifting as he did so. “It’s not like I can fly with them.” Philza gently grabbed at the other wing, tracing over the wing structure. Purpled giggled slightly, trying to stay still for the elder. He poked at a certain mass at the very edge of the crook, pointing at it. “Can you feel this? This is one of the last muscles to erode. As long as you have that muscle, you should be able to fly again, with some work.”

Purple eyes widened in shock. “But- I thought- I thought I couldn’t fly? Ever?” “Nah, kid.” He poked at the mass again, smiling at him. “You can.” He felt liquid burn underneath his eyes. He blinked, trying to keep the tears back. Through his tear-blurred vision, he saw Philza smile at him. “We can make it happen kid.” Techno piped up for the first time in quite a while, snorting angrily. “And whoever told you you can’t fly is going to get a personal visit from me and my axe of peace.” He pulled out a shining netherite axe, tapping it lightly on the side of the table.

Purpled laughed, a watery sound that made both of the elders stir to life, ready to hug him. But he waved it off, swiping off the tears with practiced (almost too practiced) ease. He stuttered slightly, warmth and gratefulness seeping into his voice like heat from a hot chocolate into a pair of cold hands in the wintertime. “T-thank you.” He moved to hug Philza, grabbing at the man and sobbing into his shirt. Phil pat his back, rubbing soothing circles into them. “Of course, kid.” Techno moved closer, dropping the axe on the floor with a clatter and wrapping his arms around the two of them. “Group hug,” he deadpanned, snuggling into the two and effectively squashing the smallest in between the two of them. Purpled made no move to escape the duo, chirping happily.

The house was silent. The three of them basked in the soft, warm feeling of being loved. Unfortunately, no such peace ever stays intact. With a loud bang, Tommy slammed the door open. “What’s up, motherfuckers!” He sauntered into the room, grin freezing on his face at the look of surprise on Purpled’s face. “Oh...hello.” Purpled smiled at him, too happy to be disturbed by the rambunctious kid. Tommy speed-walked past them, not trying to disturb them anymore. Muffled by the layers of fabric and feathers, Phil quipped lightly, “Any more things to disturb the hug?” Techno huffed. “I mean, if you wanted to know...I did find out that Purpled’s ticklish.”

Purpled’s heart stopped. Oh crap. “No, hehe...let’s not talk about that…” “Nah, I think we should talk about it. It’s real interestin’...” The youngest scrambled to escape the duo’s grasp, only to be grabbed by the hood of his hoodie. Philza pulled him back, grinning. “Oh no, you don’t.” He turned to look at Techno, smiling as the two of them untangled themselves. He scooped up the younger, poking at his ribs as he did so. “Ready for round two, kiddo? I want to find out all of your spots myself.” “NohoHO!” Techno stood back, crossing his arms with a slight smile. I guess some things do end up turning out right after all. He leaned back, watching the other two have their fun. And all was calm outside the house of the syndicate...except, you know...literally everything. But that’s a story for later.

#Lee!purpled #ler!techno #old fic #my writing #downy writes #dsmp tickle #mcyt tickle #Tell me if I posted this alreadt #Lol #sfw tickling

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melwilson · 3 years

Text

Breaking Point

pairing: steve rogers x reader

warnings: none

rating: angst, fluff

a/n: i just realized i haven’t written for steven yet so here u go ;) this has been in my drafts for awhile and i just finished. i really like this one.

Steven Grant Rogers. A name destined to be written down in history books forever. A name that changed the world and opened up its mind to new possibilities, new realities. The name of the man you had fallen in love with. The name of a man who had captured your heart before you had the chance to say no. He was a soldier. A leader. A national hero. To you, however, he was just Steve. A kind man with a good heart and an undeniable compassion for people. He was strong. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. It was damn near impossible to break Steve Rogers. And when he did break, no one saw and no one knew. No one except for you.

You, a former espionage agent for SHIELD. Someone who had unintentionally weaved there way into Steve’s heart. The first thing Steve noticed about you was your worth ethic. You were driven, determined, knew what you wanted, slightly intimidating too. Steve liked that. He admired your kindness and your love for all people. And that smile. God that smile was brighter than the sun and would always send a wave of warmth through him like a fresh cup of coffee. People thought you were hard. Glass shards and bloody knuckles. But if they knew you like Steve did, they’d see the real you. The woman who only liked her eggs scrambled and literally could not function without caffeine. The woman who laughed at dumb dad jokes and cried at the end of corny romance movies.

That was you and that was the you Steve loved. Although, he had never expressed his love for you out loud. You two were complicated. It was evident you wanted to be with each other, but work oftentimes got in the way of things. You didn’t get to spend as much time together as you wanted to and when you did, it was usually interrupted. So until the busyness of life settled down, you agreed that being friends- close friends, friends that loved each other- was good enough.

However, right now was one of the rare moments that you got to be alone. The rest of the team decided to go out for drinks leaving you and Steve together in the tower. You two made dinner together and watched the sunset while you ate. Steve didn’t talk much. He preferred to listen to you. He loved your voice. Some found it gruff, but Steve would say it was music to his ears. It was soft and honeyed and had the rare ability to calm him down at just the sound.

Right now you were telling him about the training exercises you and Maria were putting new candidates through. This year’s class was good, skilled, but only the top twenty would make it through, and you had fifty to choose from. The topic then bounced to how much paperwork you needed to get done and then about the last thing your mother had lectured you about on your last visit to see her.

Realizing you had been talking for far too long, you asked, “What about you, Rogers?”

The blonde raised an eyebrow. “What about me?”

You chuckled, shaking your head. “How are you?”

Steve couldn’t remember the last time someone had asked him how he was and had been genuine. Of course he got the, ‘hey, how are you, Cap?’ But that was just common courtesy. Yet, here you were before him, adoration shining in your eyes as you waited for him to respond. “I’m alright. I’m good.”

You cocked your head to the side, studying the man in front of you. His blonde hair sat in an organized mess on his head, just like you liked it. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and black tee that outlined every muscle in his upper body. There was a scratch on his cheek from a recent mission, but the bruises surrounding it were starting to fade. He looked like your Steve. “I don’t believe you.”

“Pardon?”

“Something’s wrong. Somethings off.”

“I’m fine, Y/n.”

You shook your head with a sigh. “Steve, you don’t have to hide anything. It’s just you and me. How are you? How are you...really?” Steve had the tendency to bottle things up and shove his feelings behind him just like you. He was stubborn and headstrong and sometimes it got the best of him. Especially when refusing to talk about his feelings. He preferred to deal with it on his own. His friends had their own baggage and emotions to deal with. He wasn’t going to burden them with his problems too. And that there was one of the many beautiful things about Steve Rogers. He always had the interests of others at heart. He would sit and listen to Nat, Sam, anyone who needed a shoulder to lean on. He would be there. He would always be there. He would carry the burdens of his friends with him to lighten the load on their back. And though he knew they would always do the same for him, he never asked them to. You knew that. Everyone did.

That’s why you were trying to pry your way in. You knew Steve needed to get some things off his chest, express his frustrations, and whatever was nagging at the back of his mind. You could tell. His eyes were an open book to you. The eyes that were usually a bright, ocean blue were dull, light seemingly far. There was a heavy weight behind them, a kind of exhaustion that told you Steve was close to his breaking point.

He glanced over at you holding your gaze. A moment passed before his shoulders slumped and he a ran a hand over his face. He sighed knowing that you weren’t going to give up and you would sit with him until he talked. All because you cared. You truly and deeply cared for the man in front of you. You would be there for him at his best and at his worst, through his highs and his lows and right now was no different. You wanted to be the shoulder for Steve to lean on. You wanted him to pour out his heart to you and carry his load with him. You wanted him. All of him.

“I’m supposed to be strong,” Steve started, “That’s who I am. That’s Captain America. A symbol that is the literal embodiment of strength and courage, but Steve? Steve is weak and broken and so damn tired. And honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can do this, Y/n. I can’t keep up with this life anymore. The missions, the fighting, all of it. Not to mention all the drama. I carry the weight of this team on my shoulders and they talk about me behind my back. And I act like it doesn’t bother me, but it does. It does because I feel like I deserve a little bit more respect.” He paused for a moment, hands balled into fists, eyes searching your own. “I’m exhausted, Y/n. I just got back from a two week long mission and Fury just got new intel. A new mission is being planned as we speak. I’ll be gone for only God knows how long just to come back and be sent off again. It doesn’t feel like I’m in control of my own life anymore. And that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that you’re here and I’m not with you. This is the longest we’ve been alone together in months. I’ve got a girl that I really like and I don’t even have enough time to take her out on a proper date. And I ask myself everyday if it’s worth it. And I think ‘of course it is. Why would you ask that kind of question? You get to make the world a safer place. Save lives,’ but how can I save lives when I can barely will myself to get out of bed in the morning? I never thought I’d say this, but I want to give it up. I’m ready to throw in the towel. I can’t do this anymore.”

Your heart was heavy as you caught Steve’s eye again. Not once had you seen him so broken, but you should have expected as such from a man who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was a protector, maybe even a savior to some, and he was a placed on a pedestal and given a crown and he was deemed the golden boy. The fearless warrior. A man of war. A lion. A leader. An Avenger. Captain America. Regardless of his title, he still had a heavy load to bear and he bore it alone so that no one else had to. And every day it became a little harder to conceal. A little harder to hold to back. But he did it anyway. He knew he would reach his breaking point, it was just a matter of time...but if he could hold it off for a little longer. However, right now, in front of you, the time had come. Steve Rogers was completely and utterly broken before you. He was weak and he was worn.

You stood up from your seat slowly, moving to crouch down in front of the blonde so you were looking up to him. Your hands rested on the side of his jean clad thighs, a sympathetic smile tugging at your lips. ‘I’m proud of you,” you mumbled, “for opening up. I know it wasn’t easy, but you needed to. Can I be honest with you though?”

Steve nodded as you began to rub circles on his thighs with your thumbs.

“I-I don’t believe you. I don’t think you’re ready to give this up quite yet. There’s no one who loves this job as much as you do. I’ve seen it. I see the way your eyes light up when you get off the jet after a successful mission. I know you love saving the lives of innocent people and getting them the justice they deserve. I know that you love your team, even if they do irritate you. I know that the world needs Captain America. Of course, Tony and Nat and Clint and the rest of the team can get the job done, but you hold that team together. They would be lost with you, Steve. You know that. You and I both do. And yeah, one day it will be too much and one day, you’ll be ready to retire, but you would beat yourself up if you left now. You’re overwhelmed and tired and exhausted. I get it, but you can’t keep holding it in. It’s not selfish to talk about what’s going on, Steve. You can ask for help, you can lean on someone else’s shoulder. You can lean on my shoulder.”

The blonde took your hands tugging you to your feet before wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you down onto his lap. Immediately, you wrapped an arm around his shoulders, fingers fiddling with a loose thread. The way Steve was gazing at you made you nervous. He looked at you as if you were the moon. A light in the darkness. An enforcer of wonder, beauty, love, and amazement. Just when he thought the sunset was the most beautiful part, he saw you and your fresh, new perspective. In a matter of minutes, you were able to lift a part of the burden off of his shoulders, relieving him of his pain and exhaustion even if it was only temporary.

“You’re too good for me,” Steve said softly, letting his free hand run the length of your thigh. “Thank you for being here.”

Your fingers dance through his hair as you nodded. “There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

Adoration could be seen in Steve’s eyes from a mile away. Hesitantly, he leaned up lips brushing yours before pressing to them fully. You hummed into the kiss savoring the feeling of Steve’s lips on yours. This was the first real kiss exchanged between the two of you. There had been attempts, yes, but there had also been interruptions and inconvenient timing. Right now, though, the wait seemed to be worth it. Steve’s hands tugged at your hips, fingers digging into the exposed skin. The moment seemed to last forever, until it didn’t, and you pulled away, lips swollen and panting. Steve let his head fall to your shoulder where his lips peppered soft kissed to the base of your neck and collarbone. The feeling sent a shiver down your spine, eyes fluttering shut.

“What would I do without you?” Steve asked, voice deeper than usual.

“Quit, I guess,” you teased, pulling back to see his face fully.

His demeanor switched to serious, a hint of brokenness in his eyes. “I can’t do this without you.”

You leaned down placing a lingering kiss to the soldier’s forehead. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

#captain america #captain america x reader #captain america imagine #marvel #marvel fanfiction #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fluff #the avengers #avenger imagines #chris evans

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babeyvenus · 3 years

Text

The Wolf Among Us

Bigby x OC

Summary: Sonya Blaze, A.K.A. Hell Rider, is a half fable, half mundy girl who comes to Fabletown to learn more about her side of the folktales. She works alongside Sheriff Bigby Wolf's as his newest partner and together they strive to find out who's behind the unexpected murders in Fabletown.

TW: Mentions of death, gore/blood, alcohol, drugs, sex implications, suicide, guns and ofc language.

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Chapter 7: Confrontations

Witching Well Chamber

Bigby, Sonya, and Snow walk up to the large stone pedestal with the body. Sonya was hesitant to get closer but sighed and did anyway.

Bufkin was standing on the end of the pedestal waiting for the three to look over the body. “Jesus… I haven’t seen her face until now.”, Sonya said, letting out a breath.

“Are you gonna be okay?”, Bigby asked, looking at her in concern. “You don’t have to stay.” Snow said. Sonya shook her head. “I want to stay. I’ll be fine, it’s just….a little strange. I didn’t think I’d be looking at my own dead face.”, she weakly jokes.

Bigby frowned at her sadly and shook his head. Snow looks over the body. “The glamour is so effective, it’s invasive. But…just do what you need to do.”, Snow told Bigby.

He looked over the body and noticed a strange brooch on the jacket collar. He pulls it off and looks at it. “I’ve never worn anything like that.”, Sonya said as Bigby handed it to her. “Maybe it really belonged to her….not part of the glamour.”, Bigby said, examining the body.

“Looks like something from the homelands. Bufkin, do you recognize these symbols?”, Snow asked Bufkin, pointing at the brooch. “No, nothing I’ve seen before.”, Bufkin says, shaking his head. Sonya places it in her pocket as Bigby looks at the severed neck of the body. “It looks just like Faith’s did.”, he said, looking back at Snow. “Did Doctor Swineheart ever get back to you about Faith, Snow?”

“No. He said he wanted to run more tests.”, she shook her head. Bigby turns back to the body and sniffs the air around it. “She got your perfume right.”, he says in surprise. ��We’ve never met. How the f- how do you know what perfume I wear?”, Sonya looked at him in shock. He smiled. “You can’t fool this nose.”

‘Damn his wolf senses.’, she thought. “If her neck wound was the same, there might be a ribbon in her mouth too.”, she suggested. Bigby opens the head’s mouth and looks inside but doesn’t see anything.

“Anything?”, Snow asked. He shook his head. "Nothing.“ He sets the head back down. "So it’s not exactly the same.” Sonya fidgets, looking at the head. “Could you…close her mouth? Please.” Bigby looks at her worriedly before he closes the head’s mouth. “Thanks.”, she mumbled, crossing her arms.

Bigby moves to the legs of the body. He saw the cuffs of the pant legs rolled up, a hole cut into the thigh of her jeans and noticed the rope marks around her ankles.

He also noticed some marks on the left thigh, right above the knee. “Track marks.”, he says, looking closely at the needle holes. “She used mundy drugs?”, Snow asked him. “Looks that way. Pretty heavily too. I hear they only go for the legs if they’ve used up all the veins in their arms….or if they’re trying to hide the marks.”, Bigby informed. “I always thought that it was just the arms.

That's usually how doctors do blood tests…”, Sonya says. Bigby turned to her. “Anyway, it just means it’s not a perfect match to your leg. Unless….” She narrowed her eyes at him, “Don’t even.” He shrugged, “I’m just saying, maybe she was trying to compensate with that perfume.”, he said, giving her a smile. She shook her head with a small smile.

“Wait. If the glamour is supposed to look like her, shouldn’t it be concealing things like track marks? That brooch too.”, Snow asked. “It’s possible it’s designed not to.”, Bigby says. “Designed not to hide track marks?”, Sonya asked, confused.

“Eh, good point.”, he said. “The witches upstairs know what they’re doing, that’s why they cost so much.”, Snow said. “Unless someone’s making glamours illegally.”, Sonya suggested with a raised eyebrow. “It’s not technically illegal, miss. It’s not encouraged, for sure, but there aren’t any laws specifically forbidding it.”, Bufkin informed.

“So…. there’s some sort of black market for glamours?”, Bigby asked. “One would assume so.”, Bufkin nodded. “I imagine anyone with access to the proper books and training could theoretically produce a glamour.”

“Yet another thing to worry about.”, Snow grumbles. “Black market or not, it’s a pretty good match.”, Sonya said. “Scary, but pretty good.” Bigby examines the rope marks. “These rope marks...”, he mutters. “She was tied up?”, Bufkin asked, with wide eyes. “They tied cinderblocks to her ankles….so she would sink.”, Bigby said.

Suddenly, Crane walks in behind them, scaring Sonya. “Sorry, that, uh, took longer than expected. What have you found out?” Bigby stood up straight, “She was using mundy drugs. Pretty heavily too, judging by the track marks on her legs.”

“Track marks?”, Crane asked, confused. “Isn’t there….there are diseases… ”

“I think that’s the least of her worries now.”, Sonya says, crossing her arms. “Yes...yes, of course.”, Crane said.

All three of them stared at him in confusion before Bigby turned back to the body and saw that the body’s fist was clenched. “Her hand’s in a fist.”, he said. “So she fought back?”, Snow asked. “No. Her knuckles aren’t bruised or anything.”, Sonya said, picking up the body’s hand.

“Maybe she was grabbing something.”, Bufkin suggested. “Maybe….”, Sonya mumbles and starts to pry it open until finally the hand opens. There was a large metal ring in the hand. “What the hell…” Bigby picks it up and examines it. He sets it down and digs into the jacket pockets.

In one of them, he found a bottle of perfume with a small note attached to it that said. “Use this.”

“What is that?”, Crane asked him. “She had the perfume with her. Looks like someone picked it out for her.”, Bigby replied. “So someone gave her instructions?”, Sonya asked. “I wasn’t aware my perfume was that recognizable.” Bigby shrugs and puts the bottle down and digs in the other pocket.

In the other pocket, he found a wooden tube with weird markings around it. “I’ve seen things like this before…”, Snow said as she saw the tube. “It’s definitely magic, though the witches don’t usually craft objects these days.”

“I don’t think it’s wise to fool around with that. It’s some kind of black market magic, who knows what it could do?”, Crane said, nervously.

“Will you keep quiet?”, Bigby growls and Crane glares at him. Sonya narrows her eyes a bit at Crane, “How do you know its black market stuff?” He didn’t say anything.

Bigby brings the tube to his ear and shakes it. It sounded like something was inside of it. “Hmm.”, he hums. “What?”, Crane asked him. “There’s something in here.”, Bigby said, shaking it again in Sonya’s ear. “How do we open it?”, she asked him.

Bigby scanned over the tube again, frowning as he tried figuring it out. Bigby glanced over at Crane. “Might want to stand back if you’re worried, Crane.”, he says, smug. “I’m gonna try to open it. Something to do with these rings here.”

Crane folds his arms as Bigby looks over the tube and saw that it was like a puzzle. He twisted the rings, until he heard a click and the image of a deer on the tube. “A deer? What does that mean?”, Sonya asked.

He pours out the contents on the pedestal, revealing a small bundle of dark auburn hair, almost like a ball of hair coming from a brush, and rolled up paper. He picks up the roll of paper and unravels it to reveal that it was a torn picture of Sonya looking somewhere.

“What the literal hell…!”, she yelled, grabbing her head. “Is that my hair??” Bigby hesitantly handed the picture to her. “Someone was stalking me…”, she says, looking at the picture. Bigby picks up the bundle of hair.

Bigby sniffs it and says, “Yeah, definitely your hair.” Sonya sighed a shaky breath stepping away from the pedestal, covering her face before dragging her hands down her face.

Bigby followed and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, shaken up. “Who did this, Bigby?”, she whimpered.

Before he could reply, they turned their heads to hear a crackling noise and saw a green light brightening the room. The body changed from Sonya to a female troll. She gasped, covering her mouth. “She’s a troll?!” Bufkin exclaimed.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”, Crane whispered, stepping away a bit.

“Holy shit.”, Bigby said, his eyes widened. “Well, that helps explain the glamour. Kind of.”, Snow said.

“W-Who is she?”, Sonya asked. “She kinda looks like Holly.”, Bigby said.

“The owner from the Trip Trap?”, Snow asked him. He nodded and Snow gasped. “It’s her sister, Lily. She was reported missing, but I….I guess it just slipped through the cracks.” Sonya’s neck snapped toward Snow. “How the hell could it have “slipped through the cracks”!? Was this not an important thing or what!?”

“We have to go tell Holly.”, Bigby said, urgently. Sonya frowned at him.

“Right. Who knows, she might know something about this. Who Lily was seeing…”, Snow said until Crane speaks up. “Certainly another troll.”

Sonya narrows her eyes, “How do you know that? She’s dead, we don’t know that for sure.”

“We should go.”, Bigby said, looking at Sonya. “You can’t go out there!”, Crane exclaimed.

“Why the hell not?”, Sonya asked, growling at him. “It’s too dangerous. Someone tried to kill you.” Crane replied quickly, stepping in the way. He looked at Bigby. “Bigby, you can’t let her go out there with you. You’d be putting her life at risk."

"Bigby is not my babysitter! Two fables are dead and we’re gonna get this done with or without you, Deputy Mayor.”, Sonya sneered at Crane. “Bigby is your boss. He’s allowed to set up any investigations for you.”, Crane argued.

“Sonya’s her own woman. If she wants to go, I don’t see why not.”, Bigby says, crossing his arms.

“But–”

“We should leave now. You ready?”, Bigby said as he looked over at Sonya, smiling. “Let’s go.”, she nodded. “I’ll come with you two.”, Snow said, following behind.

TRIP TRAP

“You’re a bar. You’re supposed to have darts.”, a blonde man fussed, pacing around.

“And I normally do, but who knows where the fuck they went to after–” Holly’s voice stopped once she sees Bigby, Snow and Sonya walk in. The bar still a mess from Bigby’s and Gren’s previous fight.

He was still fussing, not aware of the three that walked in. “C'mon, Holly, I need entertainment.” Then he turns and sees the three fables looking at him. “This’ll do.”, he said, smirking, while Gren and Holly looked at each other in fear. Sonya looked around. “What the hell happened?” Bigby grumbled. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

He shook his head. “Holly. You got a minute?”, Bigby asked the bar owner. She crossed her arms. “Why?” Bigby frowned. “Please, Holly. It’s important.”

“Holy shit. You’re the new fable. No one said you were a cutie, though, Miss Sonya.”, Jack said, winking at her. He got close to Sonya, giving her a grin. “Uh, hi?”, Sonya waved, awkwardly. “Heard you had a strange morning.”, he said, smirking.

“It’s been kind of a strange morning for everyone, I think.” , Sonya said, shaking her head. Bigby stepped in front of Sonya, making the guy place his left arm around him.

“Every time I see this guy, he seems to lose weight. It’s amazing, it really is. He loses weight and yet somehow keeps all the muscle.”, he said.

“Jack…” Bigby growled.

“Wolfie, my dear, how are you?”, Jack asked him with a big grin. Bigby shrugs his arm off and walks up the bar but Jack cuts in front of him again. “Because, you know, we were just talking about you. All of us. At the bar, here.”

Bigby huffed, “I just need to talk to Holly. Privately.” Jack raised his hands, “Alright, just give us a second first.” Jack said. “I’m just dying to hear about the dead body that came out of the East River this morning. It was a Fable, right?”

All three of them look at him in surprise but he gives them a smug look. “Oh, everyone knows.”

“Tweedledee was just here.”, Gren mumbled.

“He described it fairly well. Said it looked like you.” Jack said, pointing at Sonya.

“What the hell!”, Bigby shouts, then came to a realization and growls. “Crane.”

“Sorry.”, Snow said as Sonya rolled her eyes at the mention of the man.

“Tweedledee said you arrested him for no earthly reason, kept him locked in the cellar “all fuckin’ night.” He said you tortured him. Which….I dunno, that seems like a breach of your legislative duties.”, Jack shrugs then walks up to Bigby and said. “Bigby, c'mon, you can’t be so dumb as to–”

“Jack. Find the off button! Now!”, Holly shouts.

Jack turned to her and said. “What is it with you two? You and Gren are all, Let’s get a posse together, when there’s no one around, but as soon as the Big Bad Wolf walks in your tails go between your legs. Cat got your nerve? What happened?”

“What happened? I’m tired is what happened.”, Holly says, frowning. “Tired of what?”, Jack asked. “You talk too much. Has anyone told you that personally or does it just go in one ear and out the other?”, Sonya asks, making Jack gape at her.

“Holly.”, Bigby said, trying to get her attention.

“What?”, Holly huffed.

“Bigby….look…two Fables are dead. And shit, Gren’s sister–”

“Holly’s sister.”, Gren corrected Jack, now irritated.

“Holly’s sister has been missing for, what, a few days now? And we haven’t heard word one about it from anyone.”, Jack said. That caught Holly’s attention. “Actually….have there been any updates?”, Holly asked.

“I….don’t know how to say this to you, Holly. The woman we found in the river….”, Bigby says, scratching the back of his neck.

“Who was it?”, Holly asked. “You know who it was.”, Bigby said, sadly.

Holly turns away sadly. “Boy, I sure walked into that one.”, Jack said.

“If you say one more fucking thing, just one more thing….”, Gren growled at him. Jack stares at him, putting his hands up in surrender then walks out of the bar.

“Fucking damn it!”, Gren shouts then he turns to you three and said. “Of course the dear Princess Sonya is all fuckin’ safe and sound!” Sonya flinches at his words, looking down at her feet.

Snow looks at her sadly, as Gren stands up and shouts. “Where were you when we reported this weeks ago, huh? Where are you when we ever fucking need you?!"

In the back, Holly pulls out a glass and a bottle of whiskey and tried to pour herself a glass. "If you’d given one ounce of a shit about her, about any of us, she might’ve been saved! She might’ve been cared for! She might’ve been—” but he stops when the sound of a glass breaks catches everyone’s attention.

Holly had broken both the glass and the bottle with her bare hands. She took heavy breaths, trying to calm herself down. “I’m sorry, Holly. I’m sorry we found your sister this way and I….I wish this had ended up better.” Bigby said, sadly.

Holly looks up at all of them, glaring at Sonya as she goes to sit down at a table. Sonya walked up to her and spoke softly. “Holly?”

“Get the fuck out of my bar.”, Holly growled at her. “I-I just wanted to–”

“It should’ve been you. It should have been you and it wasn’t.”, Holly sneers, making Sonya’s eyes widen. Sonya’s eyes fluttered as she felt oncoming tears. She shook her head, walking over to a table and pulled out a brooch from before and placed it on the table. She steps back, giving her a sad smile, “It was on her. Thought you’d like to have it.”

Holly looks at the brooch, taking it in her hands and looked up as Sonya started walking away.

Bigby grabbed Sonya's shoulder. “Hey, its okay.” Sonya looked up at him with glassy eyes. “I can’t. She was killed because of me…” Bigby started to say something but was cut off by Holly. “I…I didn’t know she still had this. The copper was from a dwarf mine…..it’s very rare….and very old.”

Sonya looked at her. “It’s pretty. I bet it was even prettier on her.”

Bigby smiles, looking down at Sonya. “That was very decent of you.” Holly called, “Gren.”

“Yeah?"

"Take off for a bit, would ya."

"Are you sure?”

Holly looks at Sonya as they make eye contact. Holly turns to Gren and nods at him. Gren makes sure before walking out with Jack. Holly walks back over to the bar and begins to pour herself something to drink.

“I don’t know that much about her life….honestly, we didn’t talk often.”, she said and she took a sip. “She was lost here, in the city. She just got swept away by it.”

“Do you have any idea why she’d be glamoured as Sonya?”, Bigby asked her. “What?!”, Holly said, shocked, looking at her. “Oh God. I’m sorry. That was probably about….she was hooking. To pay down debt. It ate me up to see her that way. Eventually, the only people she owned were at her work, you know, that shithole club. The Pudding ‘n Pie. The owner, Georgie, with all his fuckin’ fees, it’s a crock of shit. It’s how they kept her under their thumb, really.”

“Georgie? What do you know about him?”, Bigby asked her but she shrugs and shakes her head. “We can always just go talk to him.”, Snow said. “We’ve got a lead. Maybe we can take it from here?” You said.

“Thanks for everything, Holly. Is there, um, is there anything we can do to….?”, Bigby asks but Holly shook her head. “No, no, I’m better off dealin’ with things alone. I don’t need sympathy and I don’t need charity.”

“It’s not charity, it’s looking out for our own.”, Snow said, catching Holly’s attention.

“Is she…where is she?”, Holly asked, solemnly. “She’s at the Business Office. She’s taken care of.”, Sonya says. Holly sighs. “I’m gonna have to go down there and get her. Fuck.”

“Please, we can handle the funeral arrangements.”, Snow offered. “No, no it’s– it’s a kind of— it’s a formality with trolls. We burn our dead by sunrise or….I dunno.”, Holly shook her head. “Of course.”, Bigby said.

“Okay. Good.”, Holly said, smiling.

“Let’s go down to the Business Office and start making the necessary preparations, alright?”, Snow said, leading Holly out. “The Puddin’ n’ Pie, huh…”, Sonya says. “I’ll go down there now, see what I can find out from the owner. Do you want to come?”, Bigby asked. Sonya nodded.

She turned to Holly, “Is it okay if I come to the funeral after we get what we need? I feel responsible for this.”

Holly nodded. “I’d appreciate that.” Sonya smiled softly and nodded. She turned to Bigby, “Let’s go.”

Bigby nods, giving her a smile and walks with her to catch a cab.

#my art #poc oc #my oc #sonya blaze #twau bigby #bigby x reader #bigby imagine #bigby wolf #bigby wolf fanfic #bigby wolf imagine #bigby wolf x chubby reader #bigby wolf x reader #sheriff bigby

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twinkleallnight · 4 years

Text

Marshmallow

(Part-12) Hope

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Liam x MC, Drake x Hana

For previous chapters: catch up here

Prompt 1: This fic is my submission for this week’s #WackyDrabbles. The prompt is appears in bold.

Prompt 2: This is a submission for choicesweeklychallenge. The prompt appears in bold.

Word count : 1916

Tags: @ao719 @aloneautumn @bebepac @charlotteg234 @choicesficwriterscreations @choiceskatie @cordonia-gothqueen @cordonianroyalty @sfb123 @drakewalker04 @gardeningourmet @gkittylove99 @glaimtruelovealways @kat-tia801 @hopefulmoonobject @hopelessromanticmonie @iam-the-kind-and-thoughtful @idontknowwhysblog @islandcrow @jovialyouthmusic @jaxsmutsuo @kingliam2019 @lovablegranny @mrswalkers-blog @mom2000aggie @no-one-u-know @ntoraplayschoices @princessleac1 @ritachacha @speedyoperarascalparty @shanzay44 @texaskitten30 @queenrileyrose @sanchita012 @theroyalheirshadowhunter @wackydrabbles @xpandabeardontcarex @yourmajesty09

I get behind the wheels while Max is yelling something from his SUV. My phone buzzes right at the same moment. I roll down the glass to listen to him, and receive the phone call with my other hand.

“Hello!” says the sharp voice over phone.

“Livy?”

“Happy birthday…” her sound is drowned against the shout out from Max, “Happy birthday grumpy guy!” Hana and Riley laugh out loudly.

I give him a glare and roll the glass up and focus back on the call.

“Umm… thank you.”

“I see you are busy with someone.” She says with a sarcastic tone. “Since when did you start partying? Seems you are a changed man.”

“Look who's talking!” I sneer back.

“What do you mean?”

“At least I don't keep secrets.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Anyways, I think I should leave you with your commoner friends to enjoy. Bye.”

And just like that she drops the call.

“What the hell!” I shout at my phone.

Why did she call? To wish me or to irritate me? Why does she spoil everything! Damn! I was so happy, for once, but she had to call up and mess it all. I rev up the engine and hit the road with a surge of anger. I drive down to the Applewood manor and decide to call it a day.

-----------

Morning comes with a fresh start. The court and nobles are all busy celebrating the Apple blossom festival with their king and queen while I keep myself occupied by the stables. I check the horses selected for next day’s event -the foxhunt, where a mountain trail is to be covered on horse’s back. I know as soon as they conclude the festival in orchards, the excited nobles will turn to stables to tend to their rides for tomorrow. I want to make myself scarce before that.

I am about to leave when Riley visits the stables with Bertrand. She is the first one to come, as she doesn’t have a horse of her own. Liam follows them.

After exchanging pleasantries, we get to business of choosing her ride.

“I love horse riding but I have no idea how to choose the horse.” Riley says perturbed.

Liam takes the opportunity before Bertrand can reply. “Why don’t you let me do it instead?”

“That will be great!” Riley claps excitedly.

They both start looking at the unclaimed horses, and Bertrand tags along. I observe the couple keenly. They are so relaxed in each other’s company. Liam forgets all his worries around her, and Riley is like a live wire in his presence, full of energy and enthusiasm. I love to see them together. I wish…!

They turn around and Riley jumps up. “Hey Walker, I am not just borrowing, I am buying a horse.!”

“Really?” I look at Bertrand wide eyed.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.” Bertrand says in an annoyed tone, looking between Liam and Riley.

“ Congratulations!” I try to distract Bertrand.

I help Riley by checking Belle, the horse she selected. While Bertrand starts discussing official things with Liam, Riley is enraptured in narrating the events that she experienced at the festival. “You should have been there. We had such a good time. I was in Olivia’s team.”

I am busy inspecting Belle but I stiffen on mention of Livy’s name. I curse myself for the reaction. I need to get over the differences between us. I promise myself to act better next time.

Riley continues, “ We made an apple pie and you won’t believe our team won. I think our winning streak was Hana’s specially crafted roses on the crust. I tell you, that girl has so much talent!” I can see Riley’s eyes trying to find some reaction from me but I simply nod in agreement.

I pat Belle and give my approval to Riley.. “Here, all good to go!” They wrap up the deal, and we all walk out.

There are other nobles who pay visit. The stable boys help them out. There is nothing major, where my services are required. So, I take a stroll around the lush gardens of the manor. I have my plans to sit near the lake, my favourite hideout since childhood. But when I walk down to the edge of the gardens, my eyes fall on the figure who has seized my special place already.

She is lost in her thoughts, her eyes staring far away into the horizon, where the sky is pink and the golden ball of sun is about to drown itself into the unknown lands. The ebbs in the water are shining with the ochre reflections. Her calm form is adding into the serenity of the landscape. I stand there absorbing the beauty of nature for some time before I walk towards her, as much discreetly as I can.

“Hana!” I call out softly. I don’t want to disturb the tranquillity surrounding her.

She turns to look at me. Our eyes meet and she beams, “Marshmallow!” She stifles a laugh. Her teasing brings a smile on my face.

I rub the back of my neck, beaming at her. She moves making space next to her and pats her hand guiding me to sit beside her. We both sit there quietly, listening to each other’s breath, till she leaves a sigh, and shakes her head, as if disagreeing with her own thoughts.

“What is it Hana?” I ask with concern.

“I don’t know what to do. Since my childhood, I have been trained to be part of the court. Each class, each lesson was meant to place me at a higher pedestal in front of the nobles. This continuous struggle to achieve something, fulfilling their expectations” she purses her lips, “it’s tiring. I want to live a carefree life, where I live for myself. Where it is okay to make mistakes. Where I can build up a small house and fill it up with my desires to make it a home.”

“That’s a beautiful wish. What is it that’s stopping you?”

“My parents want to see me married to some noble.” She lowers her eyelashes avoiding eye contact with me. “I know they anticipate of something I can’t live up to.”

“It’s your life Hana, your parents should not be the ones making decisions for you.”

She gets up, frustrated, and takes few steps towards the waters. “That’s the whole problem.” She says. “The culture from where I come is very different. Its closed environment with families dominated by parents. It’s hard for me to explain that even if they pressurize me to do things, I still love them. I don’t want to hurt them. I want them to understand my choices.”

I walk up to her, and clasp her shoulders to turn her to me. Her usually peaceful eyes seem to be deep into some storm, piercing into mine, searching for the shores. Yet, it doesn’t falter my mind, instead it seems to be encouraging me to make stronger resolutions. “Take baby steps. Break your desires into tiny goals and try achieving one at a time.”

Her mind is still out on a wild chase as she rests her soft little palms on me. Her touch acts like a pacifier for my pacing heart. Her lips quiver to pour out the questions her eyes have stored. “How will I answer them? What will I say if they ask?”

“We will cross the bridge when we reach there.” I reply. I see the storm in her eyes calming down as the soothing honey colour dances in them again. She closes the distance between us. Her head rests on my chest and our arms embrace each other.

My eyes take in the view at the horizon. The pink of the sky has changed to purple. The waters are dark and the twilight sparkles over the lake. The storm that left her eyes suddenly is hitting the waves of my mind. 'We will cross the bridge… I said to her. Why did I promise myself into it? What am I doing? I am letting myself fall into valley of flowers, except that these flowers are going to be roses, roses with thorns. I don’t know how many wounds they will create before the eternal bliss.

“Thank you for being there for me.” Her mellow tone creates another smooth wave, overpowering my self-destructive thoughts. ‘We WILL cross the bridge…' a voice inside me resonates.

We start walking back to the manor. “Ready for tomorrow’s hunt?” I ask her.

“Yes. It’s going to be fun. I can practice my dressage.”

“You have a training in horse-riding?” I stop in my tracks and turn to her, wide eyed.

“Yes. Why are you so shocked?” She says in a casual manner.

“You never cease to amaze me.” I shake my head and start walking again. “It’s definitely going to be fun tomorrow.”

----------------

We start early morning with the trail. There is a long line of nobles trotting on their horses across the countryside. Liam is up ahead with the king, while I am at the tail end of the group with Max. We are talking about the turn of events since our new york trip just before the social season.

“What made you take that instant decision of sponsoring Riley for the social season?” I ask Max.

“Have you ever seen Liam so happy? Have you observed the way he looks at her?”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same the other day.”

“It was this look, that made me take the decision.” He confirms as our eyes gaze at Riley riding beside Hana at a distance ahead of us.

I have another question in my mind, and ask,“What is wrong with Bertrand though?” I remember his annoyance at the stable a day ago. “He is so serious nowadays.”

“House Beaumont is juggling a bit with some financial matters and since father left, Bertrand has taken it up as his sole responsibility to keep up the name.” Max's expressions brighten up, “Don’t worry. It’s nothing much. Lord Maxwell is here for the rescue.” He strikes a knight pose riding his horse.

We laugh it out. Max makes sure to keep everything cool and under control, always. A quality, I admire.

------------

“You are not the one to lose. What’s the secret?”

We have covered mountain trail, and reached the tiny village. Hana did not fail to impress with her horseback skills. But when the king announced the horseback race at the last leg for the suitors, Hana finished second.

Throughout the trail she has been either with Riley or Penelope or Kiara, and now finally I get a chance to talk to her. That is when I ask her.

“You noticed.” She smiles. “I would be sitting with the prince for the dinner had I won.”

“So?”

“So, who would have given our poor little marshmallow a company?” she pouts her lips.

I know I am grinning, ear to ear, with that comment. “Thank you Lady Hana for giving me the honour!”

We sit down for the feast. My friend’s all around me. Riley and Liam making me believe that there will be that one person in your life who will make a difference. Max, bringing the best out of worst and Hana, my new person, making me realise that not all is lost when there is still one thing that keeps us going – hope.

#pixelberry #playchoices #the royal romance #drake walker #liam x riley #trr #trr fandom #twinkleallnight #hana lee #drake x hana

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renaerys · 3 years

Text

PPG One-Shot: You Going to Todd’s? (Brick/Blossom)

My Powerpufftober fic! Still rocking the high school AU for this, so consider it a part 5 to the Shooketh, Not Stirred series. As always, can be read alone, but happens in the same universe as part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. This is also posted on my AO3.

Summary: Brick and Blossom go on a Halloween scavenger hunt. It sucks.

xxx

Blossom checked her watch for the fourth time in ten minutes. It was already a quarter past 9 p.m., her Frankentini was going flat in its plastic neon martini glass, and she was starting to regret coming to Todd’s overhyped Halloween party at all.

“Oh, hey Blossom,” said Harry Pitt, ferrying three bright glasses of the same watered down mixed drink Blossom was too preoccupied to enjoy. “You hanging out?”

Blossom smiled politely. “Hi, Harry. Just waiting for someone.”

Harry’s extra padded shoulders slumped in his pinstripe mafia boss costume. “Oh, let me guess.”

Blossom frowned, a reply on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it when precisely at that moment, Brick stormed through the front door like he was running from a zombie horde and desperate for a weapon. Todd himself spread his arms with a “What, your hairdresser keep you late?” and was almost mowed down with a cursory “Shut up, Todd.” Curiously, Brick made a beeline for the unpopulated second floor. He didn’t even see the other high school Seniors who barely dodged his path. Todd grimaced in his fake vampire fangs and chugged the rest of his beer. “Cool, catch up with you later, bruh!” he said, but no one was listening.

“Sorry, I have to go.” Blossom didn’t have time to feel bad about Harry’s dejected sigh as she ditched her drink and followed Brick upstairs. The Spotify Halloween playlist booming in the speakers faded to a low bass din as Blossom rounded the corner in the upstairs hallway. “Brick?” she called, a little annoyed.

No text, no call. He could have at least told her he’d be late so she could have timed her arrival better. With a mouthful of grievances and a heart full of him, she pushed open the lighted bathroom door at the end of the dark hall. “Brick, did you hear me calling—”

A fluttery and spine-chilling laugh slithered past the crack in the door and sank into her flesh like a snake bite. It arrested her where she stood halfway over the threshold, shackled in the throes of a very specific terror she could never forget.

Brick stood at the pedestal sink, his fingers attempting to fuse with the porcelain as he gripped it hard enough to crack and stared with manic focus at the mirror. All around them, the lyrical voice reverberated:

“Poor, angry boy, there’s yet no end to your suffering! For this next task, I want you on your knees groveling. Hide your tears And sharpen your shears— To save your brothers, make me a true offering.”

Brick snarled at his reflection, as if his demon might appear there in the mirror to throttle. But there was only him in the glass, furious and frothing under his red hoodie. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”

It took only a moment for Blossom to shake her stupor as instinct and training took over. “Brick,” she said, crossing the small bathroom to touch him.

Red eyes narrowed at her approach until the moment he recognized her beneath her smeared costume lipstick and dark eyeliner. “Blossom?” he rasped. His surprise made sense when she caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the mirror. Crop tops, fake bloodstains, and fishnets weren’t her normal style, but in a parallel nightmare universe perhaps they could have been.

The blushing eighteen-year-old boy in him went straight for her midriff, but his distress stayed his hand. “Fuck.” He rubbed his eyes.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Nothing, just— Let me get in there.” He reached around her to pull open one of the drawers next to the sink in search of something.

“It’s not nothing.”

He didn’t answer as shut the drawer and checked the one below it.

“Brick, hey. You could have called me—”

With a snarl, he slammed the drawer closed and glared at her. “I was a little busy.”

“Talking to Him?” Blossom held his glare like a hand grenade with her thumb through the pin, ready to pull. “I’d never forget that repulsive lilt. Tell me what’s going on.”

He chickened out of answering her and dove for the drawers on the other side of the sink, where he found what he’d been looking for. Blossom barely had time to question the large scissors he’d pulled out before his hood was down and his man bun toppled into the sink with all the finality of a guillotined head.

Blossom gasped. “Brick!”

Somber as a corpse, he fished out his shorn bundle of hair from the sink, and Blossom watched as it burst into flame in his palm. Smoke curled through his fingers and rose high above them in an angry, red miasma. Its stink was saccharine and brought tears to Blossom’s eyes.

And then, it moved. In swirling, bloody tendrils, it slithered through the cracks above the bathroom door and down the hall as though it had a destination in mind.

“Oh, shit.” Brick dashed after it, and Blossom dashed after him down the stairs. His hand was hot in hers when she caught it and yanked him back. The split second in which their eyes met was an eon of understanding, bone-deep and cauldron-brewed. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. He looked like he needed a friend.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“Blossom,” he tried to argue.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Blossom, hey babe, wanna flip some cups on my team?” Todd sidled up to Blossom with a stack of solo cups. Then he noticed Brick’s serrated haircut. “Buddy, what the shit happened to your hair?”

“Please go away,” Blossom said at the same time as Brick said, “Choke on my dick.”

She grimaced at Brick’s vulgarity, but Todd took a step back. Before he could snap back, he noticed the red smoke wafting through his house out the open window. “Oh shit, fire?”

“There’s a fire?!” someone else exclaimed, and panic ensued.

Blossom was about to intervene when Brick snatched her hand and dragged out the front door. “Where did it go?” he said, squinting in the dark.

Blossom swallowed her instinct to calm down her fellow partygoers (there was no fire, they’d be fine, surely…) and looked around for the demonic smoke. “There! It’s heading east.” She rose into the air to fly after it, but paused when she noticed Brick hadn’t followed her. Instead, he jogged down Todd’s cul-de-sac toward the main road. “What are you—hey!”

She landed on the ground in front of him, cutting off his dash. He tried to go around her, but she easily blocked him. It was like he wasn’t even trying to move past her, unless…

“You’re powerless,” she said.

That was the wrong thing to say. “It’s just a temporary setback,” he said in the same choke-on-my-dick tone he usually reserved for Todd.

When he tried to get around Blossom again, she put her booted foot down and cracked the asphalt. He didn’t try to pass her again. “I’m not going to ask you again.” Then, more gently: “Please, let me help you.”

The last of Brick’s petulant pride dissolved to ashes just like his ruined hair she knew he loved, and yet he’d viciously cut it off anyway. Hesitant, yet stubbornly determined, he held her gaze. “It’s Him. He’s fucking with me. Sapped my powers and said my brothers and I will pay the ultimate price unless I solve this idiotic scavenger hunt by midnight.”

“…Wow.”

“Yeah, so it’s not like I have much of a choice.”

Blossom cupped his cheek. His chopped hair was not a total disaster, but it needed cleaning up. All that time he’d spent growing it out again…

Brick sucked in a sharp breath at her tender touch. He was as rigid as a pole, gritting his teeth hard enough to shatter. Blossom’s gaze hardened, and an old but fierce fire ignited in her Super-powered veins. “We’ll beat Him’s game. I promise you. Nothing’s going to happen to you or your brothers.”

Brick let his eyes fall closed as he touched his hand to hers, and that was probably the most intimacy she was going to get out of him in the middle of a murder-y scavenger hunt on Halloween. Maybe after they booted Him back to whatever pit he’d been living in all these years she could salvage what should have been a fun, romantic date with her sort-of boyfriend.

Blossom cleared her throat. “So, evil limericks?”

Brick just groaned from the bottom of his tortured soul. He took her hand and led the way after the demonic smoke before they could lose its trail. The smoke led them to Townsville High School a few blocks from Todd’s, specifically to the annual haunted house experience the Senior class spearheaded every year. Plenty of students dressed in their ghoulish finery crowded in the lawn socializing and lining up to take a turn through the haunted house.

Bubbles was on duty as part of the social committee in charge of managing the exhibit. When she spotted Brick and Blossom headed for the cafeteria door that had been transformed into the haunted house’s black-curtained foyer, she bounced over to them. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you guys here tonight! I thought you were going to Todd’s. Wait, Brick, did you cut your hair?”

“It’s a long story,” Blossom said.

“Whoa! Slow down. You can’t go inside without a costume.” Bubbles blocked Brick’s single-minded steamroll inside after the last of the curling, red smoke slithered past.

“Bubbles, move,” Brick spat.

“No way. You can be a party pooper at Todd’s all you like, but you’re not bringing any of that into my super scary haunted house that I spent all day decorating.”

“I swear to god—”

“Bubbles, do you have any eye liner?” Blossom interrupted before Brick could say something to her sister she would make him regret for the rest of his life.

Bubbles, dressed in glam trash Powerpunk solidarity with her sisters for the night in fishnets and glitter, grinned as she dug in the pockets of her spider web-patterned black tutu. “Great idea, Blossom! C’mere, you.”

“What—hey!” Brick was literally powerless to stop Bubbles from manhandling him into a quick makeover. “There, it’s purr-fect!”

Despite the possibility of Brick’s gruesome end by satanic evisceration looming at the end of the night, Blossom could not help but laugh at the cute nose and whiskers that transformed Brick from grumpy boy to grumpy cat.

The flash on Bubbles’ phone went off.

“Hey!” Brick was redder in the face than his ruined hair.

Bubbles preened as she easily danced out of Brick’s reach before he could nab her phone and delete the evidence. “You look so cute!”

Brick turned to Blossom as his final saving grace, but there were tears in her eyes as she tried to pull herself together. “I’m so sorry, but she’s totally right. You look very cute right now.”

“Fuck this,” he grumbled, bright as a tomato as he shoved past a floating Bubbles and stormed inside the haunted house.

“Oh no—Brick, wait!” Blossom tried to tone down her giggles as she ran after him. “Bubbles, come on, this is actually serious.”

The sisters headed inside to a spooky banshee screams playlist past Ms. Keane’s bubbling cauldron and the football team zombified in a cardboard graveyard, until finally Mr. Green welcomed them to the final stop with a frightful flourish. “Step on up, boys and girls. See your future, if you dare. Mwahahahaha!”

Brick took one look at the over-eager demon teacher and tried to leave. “Maybe I should just let Him kill me while I have some dignity left.”

Blossom caught up to him and slipped her hand in his before he could turn back. The sobering reminder of why they were even here sent a chill all the way to her fingers, and she squeezed his hand in what she hoped was reassurance. “I’m not letting that happen.”

“What’s going on?” Bubbles asked, peering around Blossom’s shoulder.

But Blossom was too preoccupied by the unnatural red smoke swirling around the final, purple-draped room and its sole occupant: Robin Snyder in a truly rocking dead fortune teller costume. “Come in, come in! Let the spirits foretell your Halloween future!”

Bubbles giggled and skipped inside. She planted a very loud, very adorable kiss on Robin’s head.

“Bubbles, what’re you doing in here? You’re supposed to be on welcome duty!” Robin complained, but she reached for Bubbles’ hand and pulled her down into the chair next to her.

“I wanted to see you, obviously!”

Brick’s hand in Blossom’s squeezed uncomfortably tight, and she soon realized why: the red smoke had descended upon the ouija board set up on Robin’s table and absorbed inside it. Bubbles and Robin did not seem to notice it at all.

“All right, let’s get this shit over with,” Brick said, taking one of the empty seats across the table.

“Wow, such enthusiasm,” Robin said flatly.

Blossom took a seat next to Brick and asked their costumed host, “How does this work?”

“It’s a séance. We’ll ask the spirits what we want to know, and the board will do the rest. Everybody put a hand on the planchette.”

The moment everyone’s hands touched the plastic planchette, red smoke bubbled up from beneath it and swirled around them. In a panic, Robin tried to pull away, but found that she couldn’t. Everyone’s hands were stuck to the planchette.

“What—” Bubbles sputtered, but Him’s cotton candy creep show voice slithered from the smoke and stole her breath:

“This clue is not for the fainthearted: Unearth your next destination uncharted. Absent any confession, To the board pose your question And divine who among you just farted!”

“What the hell was that?!” Robin said at the same time as Bubbles wailed, “Oh nooooo!”

Before Blossom could respond to Robin’s very reasonable question, her arm was yanked across the board still stuck to the planchette: “B”.

Brick’s smoky cat-eyes were wide and slightly manic as he looked at Blossom, and she looked at him. She flushed so badly that she nearly swallowed her own tongue to say, “It wasn’t me!”

“Well, it sure as shit wasn’t me,” he shot back. And then, understanding dawning, they both looked across the table.

“Bubbles?” Blossom said.

“I DON’T WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME ANYMORE!” she screeched.

“Bubbles definitely farted,” Brick deadpanned. He dragged the planchette and everyone’s hands still stuck to it toward the “U” and then back to the “B” until the board spelled out Bubbles’ name. As soon as the planchette settled on the “S”, it released everyone’s hands in time for the heady, red smoke to engulf the board entirely.

Bubbles, distraught, shot out of her chair and covered her eyes in shame.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Robin tried to coax her back down from the high corner she’d flown to. “Come on down from there—Bubbles, really, I can’t even smell anything!”

“You’re just saying that because you love me!” Bubbles complained.

“Oh my god,” Blossom said, too preoccupied with the board to worry about her sister’s mortification. “Is that—”

“A map of the city?” Brick finished her sentence.

The ouija board was transformed into a mini map of Townsville, if a preschooler had drawn it in crayon.

“Here we are at THS.” Blossom pointed her finger to a collection of buildings scribbled in blue crayon. “And here…” She followed a crosshatch path to the edge of the map where a horned, red, devil face sticker grinned up at her. “The cemetery.”

Brick stood up so fast his chair fell over. He stood there for half a second, his face screwed up, and then: “Goddamnit!”

He’d forgotten he couldn’t fly.

“I can carry you.” Blossom held out her hand.

“Is everything okay in here? Robin, the next group is waiting.” Mr. Green poked his horned head through the thick drapes and sniffled. “Ew, what’s that smell?”

“Oh my god!” Bubbles turned beet red and disappeared in a flash of blue, knocking down the rest of the chairs and Brick too, if Blossom hadn’t caught his elbow before he could break his nose on the tiled floor.

“Bubbles! Sorry, Mr. Green.” Robin dashed after her.

“Wait just a minute—”

In the chaos, Blossom let Brick slip out of her grip, and he stormed out the opposite door back outside.

“What are you doing?” Blossom asked when he stopped at the sidewalk.

“Calling a Lyft.”

“I just said I can fly us both.”

“Hard pass.”

Blossom crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s wrong with it? Flying would be faster, and it’s free.”

“I’m not letting you carry me like some damsel in distress.”

“Honestly, Brick. There’s a demon threatening to kill you and you’re worried about your masculinity?”

“No, I mean—look, this isn’t your problem, okay?”

“You did not just say that to me.”

He scowled so deeply that it should have given her pause, but the painted whiskers somewhat ruined his menace. He clenched his phone hard enough to crack if he’d still had his powers. “I didn’t mean it like I don’t want you here.”

Blossom materialized inches from his face in an unnecessary display of power that nonetheless felt fantastic. “That’s better.”

Brick flushed, but not from anger. When she slipped her hand over his, he eased his grip and relinquished his abused phone.

“That’s better,” she said again, more honey than venom this time.

Like hell was she going to send him off to his possible doom alone, powerless and with a really bad haircut painted like a cat.

“Blossom, I’m—”

Her kiss shut him up, and with it any further excuses to go it alone. And despite his increasingly desperate situation, he kissed her back like he’d never get the chance to again.

A car horn honked. “Hey, are you Brick?” asked an older guy in a Honda Civic with a fuzzy, pink mustache attached to the front bumper.

Brick very briefly broke their make-out session to reply, “No,” and then tightened his arms around Blossom’s waist and got right back to it.

The Lyft driver squinted between the profile picture on his phone and Brick. “Wait, really?”

“Never heard of the guy,” he mumbled against her lips, proving that if she wanted to get something done, she’d have to do it herself.

Blossom rolled her eyes and removed his hands from her. Before he could do anything about it, she hoisted him onto her back and hooked her arms under his knees. “Come on, let’s go thwart your imminent murder.”

The Lyft driver watched them take off in a blur of pink. “Goddamn teenagers.”

He canceled the Lyft order and left Brick a one star rating, which was probably fair.

xxx

When Blossom touched down near the entrance to the graveyard, it was back to business. “How much time do we have?”

Brick checked his phone. “About an hour and a half.”

She jogged to keep up with his longer stride as they made their way deeper into the graveyard. “Okay, that’s plenty of time to figure this out.”

A peal of laughter stopped them in their tracks on the gravel path for the split second it took them both to recognize that particular manic cadence.

“Butch,” Blossom said at the same time as Brick said, “Motherfucker.”

Beyond a small hill near the base of a huge oak tree, Brick’s brothers, Buttercup, and Mike Believe sat among the granite tombstones with a pillowcase full of candy passing a joint around. Buttercup had just blown a smoke ring in the shape of a star.

“Bitch, I’m too stoned for this fucking tongue witchcraft,” Butch said. He made an appropriately chilling sight all in black with his face painted black and white in the design of a skull.

“Hey, can you blow a heart?” Boomer asked.

“You sap.” But Buttercup took another drag and hopped off the tombstone she’d been sitting on. Moonlight glinted off the spikes on her black leather jacket as she reeled back and blew three perfect, concentric hearts from her red-painted lips.

Boomer sat up from his place under Mike’s arm and snapped a picture on his phone. “You officially have the greatest special power out of all of us, no contest.”

Mike laughed and accepted the joint when Buttercup passed it to him. “I’m gonna have to agree with that one.”

“That’s because you’re one hundred percent whipped,” Butch said.

Mike shrugged. “Eh.”

“Buttercup.” Blossom approached her sister. “You’re smoking here? What if someone catches you?”

“Somebody just did,” Boomer said under his breath.

“Damn, Blossom, you girls doing a three-way theme tonight?” Butch slipped off the tombstone he’d been draped over to admire her fishnets and then Buttercup’s matching set. “I like it.”

“Give me that.” Brick took the joint from Mike and snuffed it out under his foot.

“Whoa, whoa,” Mike said. He stood up, and at his full height in a 1920s-style adventurer’s costume, he was a Sight™ to behold, if Blossom was being completely honest.

“Brick, what’s the matter?” Boomer peered around Mike in his homemade mummy costume. “And why the hell are you wearing cat makeup?”

“Oh shit, he is,” Buttercup said with a snort.

Before Brick could lose his temper, Blossom said, “Brick, the clue. We don’t have all night.”

“What clue?” Boomer asked. He peered at them seriously. “What’re you two doing here, anyway?”

“Yeah, I thought you were going to Todd’s,” Mike said.

“Todd’s parties blow,” Buttercup said.

Blossom ignored them. “Something about unearthing a destination uncharted. What could it mean…?”

Brick made for quite the adorable pensive cat as he considered. He seemed to come to the answer at the same time as Blossom.

“No,” Blossom said. “There’s no way.”

“We’re going to have to,” Brick said. “What else could it mean?”

“It’s extremely illegal.”

“Yeah, well, I’m fucking cursed!”

“We can’t dig up a bunch of graves!”

“Wow, so that’s what that creepy limerick meant?” Robin approached the group with Bubbles looking windblown and totally ready to get her hands dirty digging up some goddamned graves.

“Bubbles,” Blossom said. “Look, I’m sorry about before—”

“This is Him’s doing,” Bubbles said flatly. “I recognized the voice when I calmed down and we followed you here. Just tell me what the plan is.”

“Did you say Him?” Boomer said soberly.

Buttercup put her hands up. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?”

Brick pulled down his hoodie and revealed his ridiculous haircut. “This is what the fuck’s going on.”

Boomer looked close to tears at the sight of Brick’s mangled hair.

“Him cursed Brick, and we have to solve a scavenger hunt before midnight or he and his brothers will pay the ultimate price,” Blossom said.

“The ultimate price?” Mike said, aghast.

“What the fuck.” Butch advanced on Brick. “What bullshit did you get us into this time—”

Blossom materialized in between Brick and Butch before the latter could carry out whatever violence he intended. She tapped him hard on the chest, and he stumbled back, probably too stoned to hold his normal balance against her Super strength. “Not today, Butch. Him took Brick’s powers.”

“Shit,” Boomer said. Blue sparks jumped in between his toilet paper-wrapped fists. “Okay, what’s the plan?”

Blossom looked to Brick, who was clearly outnumbered and they both knew it. With a groan, he ran his hands through what was left of his poor hair. “We’ll split up,” he said.

“And do what?” Buttercup said.

“Somewhere here, there’s bound to be a clue left by Him. I know that’s not a lot to go on, but it’s all we’ve got right now,” Blossom said. “Split up and cover as much ground as possible.”

“And what are we looking for?” Robin asked.

“Red smoke, demonic laughter, a general feeling of imminent disembowelment,” Brick said.

Bubbles cracked her knuckles and tightened her pigtails. “The usual, then.”

“Fuckin’ right.” Butch began to crackle with pent up green power.

With four other Supers plus Mike and Robin helping cover ground, Blossom hoped they could at least glean some inkling of what Him’s last clue meant. She stayed with Brick since he didn’t have his powers anymore, and together they wandered deeper into the graveyard. Lampposts along the gravel path cast a saturnine glow amidst the trees, fey and eerie on this most eerie of nights.

“Blossom,” Brick said softly. “If we don’t figure this out before midnight—”

“We will,” Blossom said.

He stopped, and Blossom turned to look back at him. Even powerless, there was a presence in his red eyes, beyond mortal and brimming with fire. Even as enemies, even when she couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as him, she had recognized that counterpoint in him, that tranquil confidence that there was nothing in this world he couldn’t overcome. It was a part of him and no one, not even Him, could take it away.

“But if we don’t,” he pressed.

Blossom’s throat wrenched to see him so calm. Not much scared Brick, not truly, but his softness spoke volumes here where only ghosts could hear them. Go, his eyes entreated her, forget about me and go before it gets you too.

She marched up to him and placed her hand on his chest. Ice froze her breath to mist as her anger clawed its way out of her, and she let him see it. “Then Hell will tremble to watch me drag you back out.”

Brick said nothing. He slipped his hand over hers and curled his fingers. Even now, he was far warmer than anyone she had ever known, and she clung to that certainty.

“Come on,” Blossom said, pulling him along after her. “Let’s solve this so we can go home.”

They followed the floating lamp lights east. Fog gathered at their feet, heavy and strange, but Brick held her hand, and secretly she was grateful not to be alone in such a creepy place. When a laughter they both wished they didn’t recognize reached them on the wind, Blossom’s heart leaped into her throat and she took off running with Brick hot on her heels.

The cachinnation petered out when they came across a man in a grey uniform and hat with a flashlight. “Hey, what’re you kids doing here?”

“We were just—” Blossom began.

“Enough,” Brick said, stepping forward. He put an arm out to block Blossom’s path. “I know it’s you.”

“Brick,” Blossom said.

“Son, I don’t know what you mean,” the graveyard worker said.

Brick ignored him. “I played your shitty game. This is the end. Stop hiding behind that pathetic mask and show yourself.”

The portly graveyard worker dropped his flashlight with a heavy crunch on the gravel. Watery, blue eyes bled to baleful red, and his pasty cheeks stretched to accommodate a smile far too wide for his human face. A low chuckle built deep in his chest like termites in a kicked mound, bubbling up through his throat to bursting.

“H͓̼̯ḭ̠̣d͜i̞᷊̯᷂͜n̨͇͟g̤̱͓,̼͎ a̮m̱̪̫͚͢ I̤̜̗?̨̞ T̨̳̻̜h͚̟̖̜͢a͖̻̠̜͇t̨̹ s͖i̹ṃp̨̟͈͕͢ļy̢͔͜ w̨̱o͈̜̟̠͟n̹̮̖’̳̝t̮ d̪̟̪̝o̹̠.͕̫̙̩”

The booming, sinister voice came from that mouth full of teeth, but it seemed to grow out of Blossom’s bones. She felt it in her lungs, her fingertips, as a tingle on her lips Brick had kissed. And she remembered he was vulnerable, under attack by this very thing standing before them now masquerading in a meat sack.

Well, screw that.

Blossom lowered Brick’s wrist and stepped around him. No matter how hard he pushed against her, he was no match for her power—power she leaked now like gasoline fumes hungry for a spark. The gravel at her feet froze, and her eyes faded to ghastly pink as she faced her childhood nightmare. “Hello, demon,” she said.

“Y̹o̬͟u̢̡̳.”

The lampposts flickered and popped, plunging the earthly ossuary into chilling shadows, but Blossom did not fear the cold. Her fists frosted over as she clenched them, and her step summoned an ice floe in the gravel that bridged the crevasse between her and the coward who dared to haunt Brick and his brothers on her watch.

“Well?” she said. “I’m waiting.”

His meat sack shrank back. This was no child Him was taunting, but a fully realized Super who was no longer afraid of his mind games. He closed that heinous mouth and cleared his throat with a dainty, sausage-fingered hand over his heart, and recited in Him’s more lyrical pitch:

“You’ve served all night at my gracious pleasure. Now the final test to determine your true measure: Find the lady who slumbers In her crypt sunk in umber. X marks the location of my precious treasure.”

No sooner had Him given them their last absurd clue than the graveyard worker seized and fell to his knees. Blossom dashed to catch him before he could injure himself. The man coughed and wheezed as if he’d held his breath for too long.

“What in tarnation…?” he muttered, dazed.

“Sir, you had a dizzy spell. You’re all right now,” Blossom said, clinically calm as she discreetly checked him for signs of blood or other wounds. She found none. “Maybe you should take a break.”

“Who… Hey, you kids shouldn’t be here!”

Brick growled and grabbed Blossom’s elbow to haul her back up. “Let’s go.”

“Take it easy, sir,” Blossom said, and let Brick drag her along before the man could think to call security on them.

When they were out of earshot, Brick whirled on her like he was about to get scary, but she held up a hand for silence.

“Before you get mad, I was just trying to—”

His kiss was not as unexpected as she once may have thought it would be. Feverish, frantic, like a boy about to die in twenty-odd minutes, sure, but not unexpected. “Fuck, Blossom,” he panted when they parted for a breath.

Blossom’s heart swelled at his raw emotion on full display, as rare as it was true, and she almost lost herself in it. But they had work yet to do. She tucked his too-long bangs behind his ear.

“So, a lady who slumbers,” she said. “I’m guessing it’s a special statue.”

“A crypt sunk in umber,” Brick said, licking his lips. “A mausoleum, maybe.”

“That narrows it down, for sure. Must be older if it’s sinking.”

“I saw a map of the cemetery at the entrance.”

Blossom grinned and put her fist in the air. She fired a pink blaster that lit up the night sky and would summon their siblings soon. “Let’s check it out.”

He didn’t complain this time when she carried him on her back for a speedy trip back to the entrance and a quick check of the map. There were four mausoleums in the cemetery.

“Found something, Leader Girl?” Buttercup, Butch, Bubbles, and Robin were the first to catch up to the Reds, and Blossom filled them in just as Boomer returned with Mike.

“Four mausoleums? Sounds like we need to split up again,” Mike said.

“If you find anything, send a signal,” Brick said.

Chance. Brick’s and his brothers’ lives were up to the one-in-four chance that they would find the right crypt. All around them, Him’s lollipop laughter followed them like a demented poltergeist.

“This isn’t it!” Brick slammed a fist against the innermost tomb in their chosen mausoleum. “There’s nothing here.”

Blossom was about to respond to that when a bright, blue spark crackled in the air. Boomer and Mike had found something. “Hurry!”

The mausoleum Boomer and Mike had picked was guarded by a lichen-infested statue of a woman with angel wings in a bed of grassless, brown soil, so dark it could have been umber in daylight. Bubbles, Robin, and the Greens arrived soon after Blossom and Brick charged inside.

“Check it out.” Boomer indicated the innermost tomb carved with two crossed sabers.

“X marks the spot,” Mike said grimly. “Oh crap, it’s almost midnight!”

“Move!” Brick tried to push the crypt open, but it was too heavy for him, so Blossom helped. The heavy stone slab groaned when she pushed it, and a plume of foul, red smoke burst from the opening.

Him’s maniacal laughter rose with the smoke that swirled on the domed ceiling and opened two glowing eyes and a cheshire smile. “My my, cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?”

Bubbles shoved her phone at the unholy miasma. “It’s midnight! We beat your stupid deadline, see?”

“Bubbles, please don’t antagonize the ancient evil,” Robin whispered nervously.

“Technically, Blossom met the deadline since Brick was too weak to open the tomb,” Him crooned.

“You took my powers!” Brick said.

Him’s sinister smile fell. “Oh…did I? My bad. Here you go.”

The red smoke converged on Brick and passed through him with the force of a sword through the gut, and he collapsed to his knees in a circle of fire, gagging. Bubbles and Boomer were lightning fast as they swept Robin and Mike as far away from the conflagration as possible.

“Butch, shield!” Blossom commanded, and Buttercup shoved him so hard he tripped and crashed against his own hastily-erected shield bubble. It contained the explosion of power well enough to keep the mausoleum standing.

“Tsk tsk tsk, this won’t do. All I wanted was to play a little father-son game with you, and you had to drag your girlfriend into it. Parenting is so hard these days. I’ll just have to teach you boys a lesson.”

Blossom’s heart twisted. If Him was truly serious about killing Brick and his brothers, he would have to go through her first.

“Like hell,” Buttercup spat, her fists glowing green.

Brick got to his feet groggily. He looked like he just survived a bad case of seasickness.

Him burst out laughing. “Choice words, Buttercup. Now boys, time to pay the ultimate price!”

The tomb lid slid to the ground on unseen forces, revealing the horror within. Blossom readied her pink blasters, and her sisters did the same. Brick took one look in there and recoiled. “What the fuck—”

When no hellspawn burst from the tomb to attack, Blossom approached and peered over the edge. Inside were hundreds of polaroids of young children in dresses with their hair styled as they posed like Victorian paintings. Blossom reached for one.

Buttercup burst out laughing. “Holy shit, is this you?!” She had two polaroids in her hands as she flapped them in Butch’s face.

“Give me those!” Butch snarled.

“Wow,” Robin said, torn between hysteria and horror as she gawked at a picture of six-year-old Butch with bunny clips in his hair wearing a frilly white dress. “Wait until my therapist hears about this.”

In the picture Blossom had selected, Brick’s hair was expertly braided over his shoulder as he sat on a stone throne surrounded by candelabras and horned skulls in a flowing, white dress. He did not look happy to be there. He looked even less happy to behold this childhood shame years later.

“I burned those,” he said in a voice from beyond the grave to no one in particular.

“I made copies!” Him sang. “And now, all of Townsville will get to see you in your pageantry finest!”

“I’m gonna fucking kill you!” Butch screeched as Buttercup took off flying with a fistful of polaroids laughing her ass off. “Get back here!”

“You know, I think I look pretty cute in these, actually,” Boomer said.

Mike laughed. “Yeah, you totally do.”

“This is what you meant by paying the ultimate price?” Blossom asked the incorporeal demon head floating above them.

Him grinned. “Why, of course. Oh! You didn’t think I would murder my own sons, did you?”

The sinister glint in those yellow eyes told a very different story, one that may have ended poorly if she hadn’t forced Brick to involve her in whatever was going on.

Or maybe Him was just bored of his perpetual existence in a hellish void where a cute photoshoot with his re-spawned Super sons was the most exciting thing that had happened in a millennium, and he was feeling nostalgic.

The tomb erupted in flames all of a sudden when Brick breathed fire over all the polaroids.

Bubbles gasped. “Brick! Those were a work of art, how could you?!”

Brick glared at her with glowing, red eyes. “We’re never speaking of this again. Give me those.” He snatched the photos Robin was holding and burned them too.

Blossom hastily pocketed the picture she’d nabbed of baby Brick before he could notice.

Him disappeared in a swirl of smoke and laughter. “Happy Halloween! Remember to brush your teeth…”

“I can’t believe I came all the way here for this,” Robin said. “Literally, the weirdest shit is always happening to you guys. Can we just have a normal Halloween, like, one time? Just once?”

Boomer laughed. “Tall order, Robin.”

A loud explosion outside told Blossom the Greens’ fighting was going too far, as usual.

“Brick? What’re you doing?” Blossom asked as she and the others followed him outside.

“Helping Butch destroy the evidence your sister stole.” He took off in a blaze of red.

“What a killjoy,” Bubbles pouted.

Blossom bit her lip and revealed her pilfered polaroid. Bubbles’ smile turned downright sinister as she greedily snatched it. “Blossom, I love you.”

“That’s for emergencies only. I mean it, or he’ll kill me.”

Boomer threw an arm around her shoulders and grinned. “Nah, he’d never turn on his girlfriend.”

Bubbles gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re right!”

Blossom flushed. “But we’re not exactly—”

“Him said it, so it’s gotta be official by now,” Boomer teased.

“Ooh, true. There’s nothing more official than a primordial force of chaos acknowledging your relationship status,” Mike said.

“Hey, you damn kids! You’re not supposed to be here!” shouted the no-longer-possessed groundskeeper from before. He had a shovel that he shook at Brick, Butch, and Buttercup locked in a game of cat and mouse as the brothers tried to reclaim the evidence of their dignity.

“Time to go,” Blossom said.

“Hey, party at Todd’s?” Mike asked.

“Great idea!” Bubbles chirped as she gave Robin a leg up onto her back.

As Blossom found herself back at the same party where she’d begun the night on the sofa next to Buttercup regaling everyone who would listen with the story of Butch’s child beauty pageant past (sans evidence because Brick had managed to burn it, unfortunately), she found her gaze drawn back to Brick. He was up getting them drinks, his haircut cleaned up thanks to Boomer, snickering at something Mike had said.

“Blossom, where are you going?” Bubbles asked when she got up.

“Just going to talk to Brick,” she said. “Officially.”

Bubbles lit up and grabbed the nearest hand to crush her feelings into, which happened to be Butch’s. “What the—ow, woman, let go!”

Brick saw her coming and stared at her growing smile like the baffled teenager he was underneath it all. With all their friends’ eyes on her, she walked right up to him and kissed him in front of everyone.

Let them see, she thought. Let anyone who was watching and biding their time to strike see, and let them try.

Lyrical laughter echoed somewhere on the edges of hearing over their friends’ laudatory cheers and loud calls for celebratory shots, but Blossom tuned it out as she smiled into her kiss.

xxx

Like Boomer, I am a sap who loves a happy ending. Reds are finally official in this AU?! Took us long enough. Also, I always saw Him as this weird dichotomy of ancient murder-y evil and chaotic good mom. I feel like trolling the Boys would be a favorite past time of his. Might write more Him in the future and explore that more.

Happy Halloween y’all. Get spooky, and stay safe!

#Powerpuff Girls #Blossick #Reds #Blossom #Brick #powerpuff girls fanfic #powerpufftober #powerpufftober 2020 #february fic prompts #ppg shook

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neuxue · 4 years

Text

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight ch 2

Perrin and Galad deal with leadership and its consequences, and I continue to not deal with the narrative conspiring to make me like Galadedrid Damodred.

Chapter 2: Questions of Leadership

With a title like that, this can only be a Perrin chapter.

Because average leader questions himself 10 times per book factoid actually just statistical error. Wolfbrother Perrin, who lives in a tent and questions himself 1000 times per book is an outlier and should not have been counted.

And that might be a new low for this liveblog, which is saying something.

A few days ago, the pervasive cloud cover had turned black, darkening like the advent of a horrible storm.

Luckily for you and the rest of existence, that particular meteorological phenomenon masquerading as a man decided against total annihilation of everything. *shakes head* Weather forecasts. Can’t trust ‘em.

(The science nerd in me now wants to write, like, a short story or something in the form of a journal article called Impact of localised heroic systems on global atmospheric chemistry and I think perhaps this is a tangent).

Anyway, we are indeed with Perrin, who’s been having a great time lately dealing with mud and plague. Yes, well, aren’t we all.

Both Asha’man had nearly died

Yeah well they’re used to that by now, surely. All in the job description.

Perrin you’ve had a month to work on that blacksmith’s puzzle in your pocket and you haven’t solved it? Just – give it to me. There. Solved.

(I used to love these puzzles. Haven’t come across one in ages though.)

Perrin’s taking in refugees because either he’s lying through his teeth or he’s ta’veren enough to slightly counteract Rand’s spoil-everything-edible influence, maybe.

He had bigger worries to bother him, not the least of which were his strange dreams. Haunting visions of working the forges and being unable to create anything of worth.

Is this the blacksmith equivalent of dreaming you’re suddenly sitting an exam you’ve not studied for, and also you’re naked?

Moving so many refugees was slow, even discounting the bubble of evil and the mud.

Hey at least you’re not also dealing with border walls and immigration control.

Everything took longer than he expected, including getting out of Malden.

Oh, TELL ME ABOUT IT. Me? Still bitter about the Malden plotline? Whatever made you think that?

All in all it seems like a pretty standard Tuesday for Perrin: slogging through mud, questioning his ability to be a great leader (not to be confused with the Great Leader), and trying to keep four nations’ worth of soldiers and refugees away from each other’s throats. Only one we’ve not ticked off the list yet is denying his wolfpowers, but there’s still time.

“Find out where they’re from, learn whether they did serve a lord, see if they can add anything to the maps.”

In which Perrin Aybara invents the census.

Oh hey! The road’s getting less muddy! Which is definitely not symbolic or anything.

“Where are the others?”

“They went on ahead, my Lord,” Fennel said, bowing from horseback. “I volunteered to stay behind, for when you caught up. We needed to explain, you see.”

I’m sorry, hold the phone, forward-thinking and communication – a plan specifically about communicating, even – all in one statement? Well. You know the apocalypse is coming when.

So everyone Perrin sent ahead has taken a detour because there’s mud up ahead, which may be the Pattern’s way of saying ‘we’re running out of time can you please just go where I need you for once’ or may just be bog-standard (see what I did there) geology and meteorology, but will, if the glimpses of Perrin through Rand’s special colour vision last book is anything to go by, result in a collision course for Perrin and Galad, which I’m… weirdly looking forward to.

“But from the look of things here, you decided to bring the entire town with you!”

Think bigger, Fennel. ‘Nation’ bigger, at the least. More likely plural.

Perrin does briefly consider splitting the party army nation(s) at his back, but the Shaido are conveniently in the way so instead I suppose they’ll all just make their way, amoeba-like, to wherever they can engulf Galad’s own group. Or be engulfed by. Alliance, phagocytosis; to-may-to, to-mah-to…

No I’m not sure where I was going with that either. Moving on…

He himself could Travel back to Rand, pretend to make up – most people would still think that he and Rand had parted ways angrily

This strikes me as being strangely sad, and I’m trying to figure out why. Maybe it’s because there’s a secondary reading of this which is that their ‘making up’ would be as much a pretence as their ‘fight’ because both of those have friendship as a prerequisite, and are they even friends anymore after all this time and all that has happened and all that lies between them?

Especially because, in terms of timelines, right now-for-Perrin, Rand is… not really in a place to be anyone’s friend.

I wonder, though, because I’m a terrible person who finds opportunities for Suffering even in things that should be entirely free of it, whether Rand-after-Dragonmount is in a better place to be anyone’s friend. I think yes, because that was very much the point, but I feel like there’s a bittersweet potential to it where ascendance is just as bad as damnation for maintaining a normal social life.

Or, less flippantly, there’s a strange loneliness to the messiah’s role, to being a force of nature and a champion of fate as much as or more than a man. He is known to all and all look to him and he stands, surrounded, at the centre, and he has learned to see the hope and promise in that rather than just the despair but there is still the sense of being alone on a mountain, alone on a pedestal, existing alone on a level that is not quite human but not quite divinity, touching all but no longer, quite, as a peer. Forces of nature don’t have best friends, even if they turn towards benevolence.

I mean, I’m spitballing here, because I’ve seen exactly one chapter of Rand-after-Dragonmount, and in fairness he seemed at peace with himself and his role now, but I still can’t help but wonder. And by wonder I mean wish. Because see above re: Suffering.

I guess mostly what I’m looking for is something along the series-standard line of you can’t go back, you can only go forward. And even when forward is better, even when forward is healing, even when forward is hope, it’s not the same as what you had or who you were before, and sometimes there is a sadness to that.

Sorry, this is a Perrin chapter and here I am going on about Rand, but I just… like thinking about all the friendships and relationships between all these characters, and how they change over time, and how those ties can be so altered and sometimes strained and yet even then they can also be what saves them all.

(“My best friend turned into the world.” “That’s rough buddy.”)

Faile was back now, and it appeared that his truce with Berelain was over.

NO.

*throws book at wall*

WHY. Damn it I was so glad when that finally died and Perrin and Berelain got to just work together and appreciate each other’s competence! Why must we return to this? Don’t you know that you can’t go back; you can only go forwards? WHY THIS. WHY ME.

The Prophet was dead, killed by bandits. Well, perhaps that was a fitting end for him, but Perrin still felt he’d failed.

Probably just because he doesn’t know that Masema was Faile-d.

I’m sorry. I’ll see myself out.

(That’s a lie; you’re just going to have to put up with me and my bad puns for at least another book).

His duty was done, the Prophet seen to, Alliandre’s allegiance secure. Only, Perrin felt as if something were still very wrong. He fingered the blacksmith’s puzzle in his pocket. To understand something… you have to figure out its parts…

Because you’ve only done the middlegame part of your duty, Perrin! You still have to get ready for the ending! And that means… *dramatic hammerstroke* forging. But, you know, metaphorically.

Perrin feels awkward around Faile now because when you’ve focused your entire life and self and nation, waking and sleeping, on achieving a single goal, and rewritten your entire world around that goal, and then you do achieve it, it’s sometimes hard to know what to do with the reality of having achieved it, of having that person back at your side but an emptiness ahead of you where the idea of them once occupied everything. Or at least that’s my suspicion but Perrin when this is all over you may want to, I don’t know, talk to someone about it.

Seriously, a qualified therapist could make a killing setting up shop in this world.

“I should start turning them away.”

“I suspect they’d find their way back to our force anyway.”

“Why should they? I could leave orders.”

“You can’t give orders to the Pattern itself, my husband.”

Perrin: “WATCH ME.”

Maybe you could ask Rand to, as a favour? He seems to be on good terms with the Pattern these days. Er. These days in his timeline, I mean.

Yes, Perrin, this is you being ta’veren. Or have you been living under a rock for the last several books? Denial’s not going to last you much longer.

“And so coopers learn the sword,” Faile said, “and find they have a talent for it. Masons who never thought of fighting back against the Shaido now train with the quarterstaff.”

It’s such a ploughshares-to-swords image, and I still just love the way this is how Perrin’s ta’veren-ness manifests specifically: the one who was so careful lest he hurt someone, the one who tries so hard to deny his capacity for anger and ferocity, the one drawn to the Way of the Leaf and a dream of peace, is the one to cause that rippling of peace into war, farmers into soldiers, a quiet nation into a waiting army.

Because on one level there’s the sadness of it, of the only one who returns home bringing that home back out into the world with him and leaving it forever changed, of the one who wants gentleness rousing a people to follow and fight… but even that then ties into the deeper issue of acceptance. Of realising that the potential has always been there – for a ploughshare to be a sword or a blacksmith to be a warrior, or a man to be a wolf or a town to be an army – and that drawing that potential out and allowing it to exist and be used doesn’t negate what was there before. That man and wolf can coexist, that anger does not preclude gentleness, that fighting a war for survival does not negate the hope, one day, of peace.

And so Perrin’s ta’veren power becomes almost another level in playing out what he will eventually need to accept about himself. Just as Rand’s darkness and then light spread out to touch the world around him, it’s as if Perrin’s lack of acceptance of aspects of himself keep these people from truly coming together (the dreams of forging things that don’t come out right), whereas if he can accept what he is, and accept all parts of himself, forge them into unity, then the part of the world he affects – the people who follow him – will be forged together as well.

At least he acknowledges to himself that Faile’s right about this one. That’s a good step.

“Once we have gateways again, I’ll send these people to their proper places. I’m not gathering an army.”

Sigh. Or not. Two steps forward, one step back.

Understand the metal and the tools and the puzzle in your hands, Perrin. Look at what you have. Not at what you wish you had, or think you should have. Look at what the pieces can and need to be made into, rather than forcing them into what you want them to be made into.

“A man’s got to see a thing for what it is. No sense in calling a buckle a hinge or calling a nail a horseshoe.”

The hilarious thing here is that he’s making my point, whilst thinking he’s disproving it. Because Perrin, seeing a thing for what it is means looking at all these people around you and realising you’re their leader and they’re following you and you’re headed for Tarmon Gai’don. No sense calling a buckle a hinge, or an army a random group of refugees. (Well, they are that, too. But if you try to return them home now, soon they will have no home at all).

I do appreciate that he sees and acknowledges some of his flaws from when Faile was gone. He’s a little too hard on himself in places, and misses out others, but it’s a kind of humility and self-awareness and ability to recognise where he could be better that I like.

“It’s not [Berelain’s] fault,” Perrin said. If I’d been able to think of it, I’d have stopped the rumours dead. But I didn’t. Now I’ve got to sleep in the bed I made for myself.”

Perhaps not quite the idiom I’d have chosen in this particular instance, Perrin, but…

When she’d been a captive, nothing had mattered to him but recovering her. Nothing. It didn’t matter who had needed his help, or what orders he’d been given. […]

He realised now how dangerous his actions had been. Trouble was, he’d take those same actions again. He didn’t regret what he’d done, not for a moment.

Well… partial credit for self-awareness, I suppose?

Frustrating as this is, though, it also feels quite realistic. And there’s a certain kind of maturity in the devastating honesty it takes to look at something you’ve done and say ‘I shouldn’t have done that, but in the same situation I’d make those same choices again’. Even if it’s a mistake, being able to acknowledge that about yourself is… impressive.

You couldn’t make a drawknife into a horseshoe by painting it, or by calling it something different.

Yeah, and you can’t make a ta’veren lord, leader, wolfbrother, and warrior back into a simple blacksmith’s apprentice boy by sheer force of denial, but don’t let that stop you.

“I’ve been thinking on this for the last few weeks, and – odd though it seems – I believe my captivity may have been precisely what we needed. Both of us.”

*throws book against wall and lets out an Elayne-like scream of pure rage*

ARGH.

WHY.

‘It’s fine, Perrin, you see I actually think it’s good that I was just used as a plot device to further your character development because I was tossed a bit of character development as a last-minute consolation prize, so really it’s all good!’

Sigh. Okay. I mean, in-story and in-character… I get it. It’s over now, it’s past, and they’re both trying to move on, and Faile has always been one to try to find a pragmatic angle – even an optimistic one – on a situation. And she’s strong enough to say this and make it sound (almost) believable. To look back on harsh lessons learned in harsher circumstances and appreciate the fires that forged her.

Which of course puts me in mind of Rand and his if a sword had memory, it might be grateful to the forge fire, but never fond of it ‘gratitude’ towards his imprisonment in Far Madding, but with Rand and that thought, we are given fairly obvious narrative cues that point to ‘yikes, Rand, that’s maybe not the healthiest of responses to trauma’, and we know full well that we’re not supposed to think ‘ah, yes, being locked in a cell with his worst nightmares was good for his character development so everything’s fine’. (Which is not to say we can’t enjoy it, because sometimes you just want to see your favourite character broken and bleeding and chained to a wall, but that’s uh. Neither here nor there).

But here, it’s as if we’re supposed to take Faile at face value. As if we’re supposed to nod and think ‘yeah, actually, that probably wasn’t fun but it was What She Needed’ (which… wow that is an entire pile of yikes, because yes, what a female character in this genre needs is to be held captive and sexually coerced and deprived of all agency… is maybe not a point you want to be making?). It feels like trying to hang a lampshade on that travesty of a plotline and say ‘but look! It brought them both character development! So it’s fine!’

Anyway I’m still just bitter about the way Faile has been used as a plot device for Perrin’s character development across the last few books, and this… while entirely understandable from a character and story perspective, from an external perspective feels like salt in the damn wound.

Moving on.

To Galad, apparently.

Galad who is bound and in pain after being tortured. I’m listening.

(Why am I like this)

All was dark around him, but pinprick lights shone in the sky. Stars? It had been overcast for so long.

Huh. There’s something almost sweet about how closely this echoes that chapter in TGS when Gawyn is wishing he could see the stars. I mean I’m certain it’s not actually intentional because it’s a spurious connection at best, but it’s just a kind of sweet-sad note of similarity between two brothers who haven’t seen each other since they both got lost trying to find their way, and are still trying and wishing, just for a moment, for the stars for guidance.

They’re not actually stars, just pinpricks in the tent, but that’s beside the point.

What’s not beside the point is the inventory of Galad’s wounds because honestly, it’s as if everything from then he did dance, all his grace turned in an instant to fluid death onwards has been a targeted attack on me as a person by going down a list of all the things I like to see in a character and going ‘do you like him now? What about now? What about now?’ and I’m mad about it.

Galad did not fear death or pain. He had made the right choices. It was unfortunate that he’d needed to leave the Questioners in charge; they were controlled by the Seanchan. However, there had been no other option, not after he’d walked into Asunawa’s hands.

I’m not sure why I find it so fitting that Galad’s experience at Asunawa’s hands is not unlike Morgase’s in the end, but something about it just works for me. There’s a whole set of connections here that this bookends, between the two of them and their fall from and rise to power, and choices, and Valda and Asunawa and the Seanchan, and for whatever reason it feels satisfying to have this coming to an end much like it began. Though Galad is spared Morgase’s…………… choice. But I suppose there’s almost an irony here in him avenging Morgase in one way but then sharing her fate in another.

Or maybe it’s just back to the classic ‘I like fictional characters in pain’.

Soon the Questioners would come for him, and then the true price for saving his men would be exacted with their hooks and knives. He had been aware of that price when he’d made his decision. In a way, he had won, for he had manipulated the situation best.

STOP. TRYING. TO. MAKE. ME. LIKE. GALAD. DAMODRED.

I just. Damn it. This is such a good look! And yet it’s Galad!

Standing, beaten but unflinching, determined and himself, ready to face whatever they do to him. Well. That’s how Morgase began, too.

Oh hey it’s his friends! Which means probably no more torturing of Galad, which is kind of a shame (I’m sorry), but is also not entirely unexpected.

Oh wow Asunawa’s dead. Okay. Can’t say he’ll be missed, though it’s just a shame Morgase didn’t get to kill either him or Valda herself. Ah well, can’t have everything.

And it wasn’t Galad’s men who killed him, so now he has won the Questioners to him as well. Questions of Leadership indeed. I see what you did there.

It is an interesting contrast in this chapter, to watch Perrin constantly second-guessing or trying to deny his leadership, set against Galad just… accepting his.

I will give Galad this: he has won his leadership by being entirely and unrelentingly himself, and true to his convictions, and standing, despite everything thrown at him, despite the corruption around him, as a determined and unassailable symbol of what the Children of the Light should be. What they can be. He doesn’t try to steal power, doesn’t outright challenge their ways; he just leads quite literally by sheer force of example.

Galad nodded. “You accept me as Lord Captain Commander?”

But also, I just have to remind everyone that he’s buck-ass naked throughout this entire scene, and some juvenile part of me finds that absolutely hilarious.

“We were forced to kill a third of those who wore the red shepherd’s crook of the Hand of the Light.”

What a pity. No, really. I’m weeping. How sad. Terrible.

None of them asked whether he needed rest, though Trom did look worried.

Again! Characters beaten and exhausted and hiding their pain in order to just move forward is a whole Thing, and putting that on Galad and throwing it at me is just unfair.

Galad didn’t feel wise or strong enough to bear the title he did. But the Children had made their decision.

The Light would protect them for it.

(The fact that ‘Galad’ means ‘light’ in Sindarin is just an added bonus here, really).

But I like the way his thinking about this runs: he doesn’t feel wise or strong enough, but that’s not the part that matters. The part that matters is that they chose him. As Galad sees it, what makes a leader isn’t what the leader thinks of himself, but merely the fact that others choose to follow.

He is their leader now, and whether he wants to be or not, whether he feels up to it or not, is irrelevant. There’s an interesting question here around choices, and the lack thereof – that he has no choice, in a way, but to lead. Because whether or not he wants to, people have decided to follow him, and so by definition he is their leader now. And so the only thing to do, because it’s the right thing to do, is to lead them as well as he can.

Next (ToM ch 3) Previous (ToM ch 1)

#forever annoyed with Galad #but torture is a good look on him #Wheel of Time #neuxue liveblogs WoT #Towers of Midnight

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nonsensical-shitposting · 4 years

Text

Pyrite (Seeker hypothetical ending)

I would’ve posted this earlier, but I ended up adding a lot of extra stuff and it took me a few more days to get around to it. Anyway, this is a fanfic I wrote that evolved from a bunch of my theories about how the comic over at @seekerquest is going to end. (I have no idea how close any of them are to being correct, though.) There was some parts I was forced to leave vague because it was getting pretty long already, but I’d be glad to elaborate on those parts later.

Full fic under the readmore, because like I said, this got pretty long.

It’s another part of your short, short life, and you are, as you have always been, the Seeker.

You are swimming through the void with Fen once more, heading back towards Pax’s world. It’s been a strange and emotionally exhausting past few… hours? Days? Years? (Definitely not the last one.) Whichever. At least you have more of a clue what’s going on now- more than you did when you started, anyway.

The Architect is still hovering quietly behind you, following you through the abyss. She’s been following you ever since you absorbed the last of what remained of her- now, she appears as a specter of sorts always in the corner of your eye, though only you can see her. She’s even less happy about the situation than you are, especially considering that she’s somewhat bound to you and physically can’t move far away from you, but you’d like to think that your charm is slowly breaking down her general moodiness. At least she’s actually talking to you now.

“Seeker?” Fen breaks the uncomfortable silence, glancing back at you. The black splotches around his jaws and curling up his mask don’t look any better in the dim light of the void. Maybe Mim was right to be concerned about him, but there isn’t much you can do about it. “Do you h- do you know what you’re going to do once we get there? You said you… had an idea, but you d- you didn’t elaborate.” You sense more than see the Architect frown at his query.

the architect said to seekerquest: Why tell him? He’ll only get in the way.

On cue, your faceless guides speak.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Actually, yeah, what ARE you going to do? Do we even want to know?

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: You said something about finding Usurper, right? Are you going to tell him you know who he is?

You feel… tired, strangely tired, in a way you don’t think you can describe. The word schadenfreude springs to mind, except if it were aimed at yourself.

Yeah. That works. You’re finding some kind of weird enjoyment in your own tiredness, except it feels more like you’re a completely different person observing your own exhaustion. Somehow. That totally makes sense. You feel a flicker of concern from the Architect, but nothing else.

“I’m going to find him.” you say, your voice leaving no doubt as to who you’re talking about.

Fen flinches, his newly-blackened teeth bared in a silent fearful snarl. “A-are you- are you sure that’s- is that really a good idea? What are you even going to do once you find him?”

Just one of them speaks now.

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: Weren’t you contemplating revenge or something? How are you going to do that?

You’re so different than you were when you started out. You’ve changed- the memory orbs have seen to that. You’re covered in colors, mottled across your entire body, gray, white, pale blue, black, purple…

Your eyes are the only thing that haven’t changed since you awoke, really. They’re still the same yellow color.

“Make him pay.” you say, and nothing more.

“Oh.” Fen looks away from you, concern creasing his weird skeletal face. “Should I a- do I even want to know?” You can tell that he wants to go to Pax’s world with you, but the Impostor will kill him without question if he shows up there, and in his current weakened state after his failed attempt to attack the Impostor, you’re not willing to let him risk pulling his eye out or something.

“It doesn’t matter if he didn’t know what he was doing. It doesn’t matter if he’s forgotten.” you say. You feel the pressure of a myriad memories of being torn to shreds surge forth once more. “He must pay for what he did.”

“Oh.” Fen goes silent again. You get the feeling that your current seriousness is out-of-character enough that it’s concerning him. “Again, do I even want to know how you’re going to, uh, ‘make him pay?’”

the architect said to seekerquest: Don’t answer that question.

Your silence is apparently enough of an answer, and Fen looks away with a half-sigh, half-scoff. “That’s what I thought. Just… don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“My, my, is that a hint of concern I detect in your voice?”

“Uh, n-no! I just don’t want my sisters to kill me if something happens to you!” Fen sighs, shaking his head.

“Suuuuuure.” you say, stretching the word out obnoxiously. “See you later!” You flick his nose in farewell before heading back into Pax’s world, and a truly bastardly grin spreads across your face as you hear him sputtering indignantly behind you. That never gets old.

You’re finally back at the column where you first appeared. It was a bit of a trek, but you made it. Now… there’s something you have to check before the impostor shows up.

You reach for the column, and your suspicions are confirmed as you knock on it. It’s hollow. What’s more, you think you can see a thin seam forming a barely-visible ring just beneath it.

As you start to lift the lid off the column, there’s a sudden rustling noise behind you, and an uproar in your ears and eyes.

the architect said to seekerquest: He’s here.

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Oh, shit, a rat!

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Uh, Seeker? Impaxter’s behind you and he doesn’t look happy.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Well, the Imposter’s here now. Took him long enough. Do your thing or whatever.

“You’re here.” you say, dropping the lid back into place. If what you think is inside it really is there, you can’t let him see it.

The Impostor says nothing.

You turn around, and there he stands, that same blank look on his face. The old scar across his neck from where Rul knocked him out with that rock (was it really less than a day ago?), the newer one from where Fen bit him in a panic mere hours ago while you were fleeing from him (and then those awful black stains started spreading across his face, but you don’t want to think about that), and, of course, the large, jagged one carving a furless stripe down one leg. The newest one.

The one you made.

“Why did you come back?” the Impostor asks finally, and his voice is so abnormal that you blink in surprise. He doesn’t sound like a monotone freak, he just sounds… broken.

“I think you know why, Usurper.” you say.

The Impostor- Usurper- stiffens.

“Come on, don’t tell me you don’t recognize your own name. Pax gave it to you and everything.” you say.

“It is… familiar.” he acknowledges, the old monotony returning to his voice. “Then you recognize it?”

“Yeah, I’d think I would.” The images from that one memory orb flash in your mind once more- images of Pax, tired, broken, color fading away, scattered cracked pieces of his mask in a vague circular formation on the floor between his front feet. Images of a black mass spiraling up from the floor, the piece of Pax’s mask adhering to the center of its face as the entity rose like a blackened, twisted copy. Images of the dark, stick-thin figure silently staring at Pax, awaiting orders. Images of Pax greeting the entity and giving it the name “Usurper.” Images of him giving the Usurper its two tasks: to remove all aberrations from this world, and to rule it in his stead. Images of him telling the Usurper what qualifies as an aberration- anything with a mask like his- and that they must be immediately killed. Images of the Usurper asking if Pax would count as an aberration under these rules.

Images of Pax nodding once, and his limp form falling to the ground and dissolving. Images of Usurper standing over all that was left of him- his mask, fractured and discolored, landing on the floor with a hollow cracking sound. Images of Usurper grasping the mask as it, too, dissolved, rushed towards his face, and became his.

You don’t want to remember what happened after that. Neither does the Architect. But it’s not like you can forget the memories of hundreds of people being torn apart all at the same time.

“And you recognize what you are?” Usurper asks.

“Nothing.” you say with as nonchalant a shrug as you can muster. “You made me from nothing, and that’s all I am.” That’s why you can’t touch anything that isn’t either a mask or also a creation, why you don’t eat or drink or breathe, why your form is so malleable in the face of the absorbed memories- you are, quite literally, made from nothing. “Nothing.”

“Then you understand the pattern.” Usurper nods, as if pleased.

They speak again, confused, chattering, voices and text rushing over one another.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: HEY YEAH WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: Seeker, don’t do it!

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Okay, you need to sit down and have a long chat about whatever the hell is going on right now!

But above all of them- drowning them all out- is a singular command that reminds you why you’re here.

the architect said to seekerquest: Finish what you started.

“Yes. I do.” And then you jump from the pedestal and fling yourself at Usurper and through him as your body of nothingness passes through his.

Well, most of it. Because you’re also reaching as you jump, and you grasp ahold of his mask as your claws (a more recent addition, courtesy of the Architect) spring from your fingertips and grate horribly across the surface, bringing the rest of your body to a halt.

And even as Usurper is spinning confusedly, trying to shake off this awful little thing that’s inside him, you let go with one hand, ball it into a fist, and punch the back of his mask as hard as you can.

The world reels, twists sideways, and you feel the cool sensation of the inside of Usurper’s- formerly Pax’s- mask against your fist as it twists away from his face, landing in the grass with a soft thud as it spins like some kind of demented top. You kneel as Usurper dissolves, his body becoming one with the mist, and pick up the mask. The instant you touch it, it begins warping from a flat disk into something with a protruding muzzle. At first, you assume it’s returning to how it looked as Pax’s mask, but then you realize with a shock that it’s shaped like your face, or at least, the upper half.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Put it on.

You comply, the hard, bonelike material closing over your face and settling, and you get the feeling that you couldn’t take it off now even if you wanted to. “Now I am the Impostor.” you whisper, feeling worse than ever before.

The world looks different now, as if your vision’s been… elevated, but you barely process it as you slump to the ground next to the pillar you appeared on, covering your face with your arms. You wish you could cry, but you can’t.

the architect said to seekerquest: What now?

You wish you had an answer.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: So you got what you always wanted, so you got your dream come true! Good for you! Good for you, you, you!

But you didn’t! You never asked for this! You just…

You don’t know what you wanted. You don’t know if you ever did. But it wasn’t this.

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: Well, that was certainly something. How’s Fen going to react to this?

Oh. Right. Him. Funnily enough, you feel like your past self would’ve loved this opportunity to mess with his head, but now, you can’t even summon the willpower to get back on your feet.

He’s not going to take this well. You already know that.

You were Seeker. What are you now? You’ve found what you sought- an end to all of this. Now, you just need to see what you can do with this… mess of a situation you’ve been handed.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: You could try to make the world come back or something? It should be yours now, since you took the mask.

Yeah. Okay. You think you can do that. You rise unsteadily to your feet and spread your arms.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Let there be light!

And… nothing happens. You can feel the capability to use your new powers, it’s right there in the corner of your mind now that you’ve got the mask on, but you can’t actually do anything with it. Not while you’re in Pax’s world.

You don’t know what you expected. If Usurper, who was specifically designed for this purpose, couldn’t do it, why would you be able to? Pax’s world isn’t yours. It knows you’re just as much of an impostor as Usurper was, if not even more so.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: Since you’re a god now, try bringing Pax back to life. You should be able to recreate him or something, right?

You don’t even need the Architect to tell you that’s not how that works. Even if you did try to create a perfect replica of Pax as he was, even if you did give him back all his memories somehow, it’d be a mere facsimile, not the real thing. You doubt it’d fool his siblings, either.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: You can still try, even if you unmake him afterwards. At the very least, it’ll be good for practice.

This doesn’t feel very… moral, all things considered. But you’ll try anyway.

You reach up to the mask and snap off a piece from the front. Setting it on the ground in front of you, you close your eyes and focus, concentrating on Pax, on everything about him that you know from his siblings and memories.

You don’t know how long you’re standing there for, shaking, trying not to let your thoughts wander, but when you open your eyes, there’s a black, furry creature standing in front of you that almost perfectly resembles Pax. The only thing it’s missing is the mask. The creation rises in front of you, still shaky on his new legs. At the sight of you, he flinches back, fear rising in his eyes.

“Hello there.” you say, making your voice as gentle as possible. “Your name is Pax, in case you were wondering. Welcome back to your world.”

The facsimile blinks and stares at you. An expression of confusion crosses his face, and he looks like he has a lot of things he wants to ask. He starts with “What’s with your ears?”

“Ears?” you repeat.

“Yeah. You’ve got weird, long ears. Is there a reason for that, or…”

All you can do is stare incredulously at him as you think back to your first memories of this world, of this exact same exchange you had with Usurper.

“Are you just going to keep staring at me?” copy-Pax asks, which is the moment you finally lose it and start cracking up, harsh, hollow laughter shaking your entire body.

“Sorry. You just… reminded me of someone.” You shake your head. His body’s stable. There’s that. Maybe I can transfer the memories over to him? “Okay. Pax. I need you to hold still for a moment. Can you do that for me?”

“Uh. Okay?” The facsimile stays rigid, trembling slightly, as you raise your hands to his maskless face and focus.

The memories are there. They won’t be enough to reconstruct his real mind, but you can make the facsimile passable enough, and with time, maybe he’ll be close enough to the original Pax that his siblings won’t be able to notice the difference. Maybe, if they notice a difference, they’ll just pretend they didn’t, because what’s worse- the thought that their brother lost a few memories in between dying and coming back, or him being dead for good?

This is what’s best for them. This is what’s best for everyone.

You imagine your hands as a conduit, and the memories suddenly surge forth into the facsimile, who gasps and collapses into the ground. I overloaded the poor sap, you think detachedly, lowering your hands. Guess I have to wait for him to wake up again now.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: What about the pillar? You didn’t get to check what was in it before Impaxter interrupted.

Right. That thing. You step back from the facsimile and open the pillar again. Sure enough, there it is inside it in all its horrible irony.

the architect said to seekerquest: Is that the kill switch?

“If that’s what you want to call it,” you shrug. You’re trying to stay nonchalant, but you’re really freaking out. You didn’t want to see this. You’d hoped that anything but this would be here.

It’s quite literally just a switch, set in the stone floor of the hollow column. You saw it in a memory- the siblings designed them in their early days as a quick, convenient means of getting rid of old creations when they were newly formed, and Pax forgot to get rid of his. Usurper was designed to be a more selective version of this, but while he was only made to destroy Pax and certain creations, the kill switch will wipe out everything in this world- turn it into a blank slate.

You could do it. You’d be protected from it, and so would the Architect, considering that she’s a part of you now. The facsimile would be destroyed, of course, but you could just remake him.

This world would truly be yours. You would take your rightful place among the Family as a god, a creator in your own right.

And yet…

You shut the column and lean back against it, staring at the facsimile’s limp body. “I don’t want to finish what the Usurper started.” you say, voice barely audible.

The Architect remains silent. You wait.

The facsimile wakes up eventually, pawing confusedly at his eyes, disoriented.

“Do you remember who you are now?” you ask.

“I’m… Pax.” The facsimile frowns. “Where’s… where are my siblings? I need to talk to them, I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen them! Where are they? Who are you?”

the architect said to seekerquest: Well, that seems a little closer to the original Pax. Still not quite it, though.

“Calm down.” you say in your best reassuring voice. “You can’t go to them, not in this state. Haven’t you noticed something missing?”

“I…” It takes Pax a moment before he starts poking at his face- more specifically, the part where his mask should be. “Where’s my face? What’s happened to me?!”

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: If you give him back his mask, maybe he’ll go back to the old him?

You frown, considering. It’s likely, considering that the masks are a fundamental part of who they are, but on the other hand, it’s kind of attached to you now. You don’t know how he could get it back…

And then you remember the Usurper, and what happened to him, and the mist his body dissolved into.

“And nothing of value was lost,” you mutter under your breath, grinning grimly at the unintentional pun. “Pax. Listen to me.” Your voice trembles. You hope this works. You really hope this doesn’t kill you.

“What?” Pax’s eyes are still wide, but he looks marginally less panicked now.

“This mask rightfully belongs to you.” you say. “I need you to reach through my head and push it off my face from the inside.” You’re pretty sure he’ll be able to do this- you’re still made of nothing, after all. Probably. Hopefully.

the architect said to seekerquest: You’re insane. This is going to kill you!

“When did you start caring about that?” you mutter at her. You don’t listen to whatever she says in response.

“Okay.” Pax nods. To his credit, he doesn’t question it.

You close your eyes, but you can still feel his hand passing into your head through your jaw and pushing at it gently.

The mask falls off your face, and the world dissolves.

“Hey! Hey, are you okay?”

You open your eyes to see a clawed hand hesitantly hovering over your face. “I’m… alive?” you mutter in confusion.

“You’re okay!” Pax beams. “I, uh, don’t know what you did or how you had my mask, but I have my powers back now!” Sure enough, as your vision stabilizes, you see that he’s wearing the mask- the mask that’s rightfully his. He looks so much more alive, too- like the him you saw in his earlier memories.

“How am I alive?” you ask, pushing yourself upright into a seated position. “I… when I took your mask off the Usurper, he dissolved into nothingness.”

“No, he dissolved into raw material.” Pax corrects. “I got some of your recent memories when I got the mask back,” he adds, cutting you off as you’re about to ask how he knows that. “With the mask removed, he became what he was originally constructed from without that…” He gestures to the side of his mask, where barely-visible cracks can be seen dividing the pieces of his mask he used to make the Usurper from the rest of his face. “…to hold him together and give him form. I’m not quite sure why you didn’t dissolve into whatever you were made out of, too, though. Maybe you were just lucky?”

“Because I’m not made from anything.” you say slowly as the realization dawns on you. “I… I’m nothing. He made me from nothing, so there was nothing for me to go back to being. I guess it... cancelled itself out and I stayed the way I was?” That barely makes any sense, but it’s the best thing you can come up with.

“…that shouldn’t be possible.” Pax furrows his brow momentarily before dismissing it with a nonchalant shrug. “Well, I’ve seen plenty of things that are supposed to be impossible in the past few minutes. I guess that’s reasonable compared to my personal kill switch destroying my world, forgetting about it, and then getting killed by his own creation.”

[USERNAME REDACTED] said to seekerquest: Now that he’s brought it up- make sure he’s not going to do that again.

“Speaking of which.” You jab a finger at him. “You better not go trying to kill yourself again, ya big loser. You really got everyone worried.”

“I… no, that won’t be a problem.” Pax reassures you. “I just… wanted a way out from being so tired and weak all the time and never being able to create what I wanted to, and I figured that it wouldn’t matter if there was somebody doing everything I used to do in my place, so I... made a poor decision that I didn’t think through very well. But I am feeling a little better now, and... well. I’ll try not to in the future, alright? Promise.” He pokes his mask hesitantly, as if to make sure it’s really there. “Seeker… thank you. For everything.”

“Just doing my job.” you say, a melancholy smile crossing your face. “You should probably get going, your siblings are going to want to see you.”

“Oh! I almost forgot about them!” Pax smacks his forehead before dashing off across the misty fields.

the architect said to seekerquest: You’re not going to follow him?

With a shrug, you spin around and run after Pax. “Speaking of which,” you mutter to the Architect, “we’re going to have to ask him to give you back your own body.”

the architect said to seekerquest: About time you remembered that.

“You don’t have to be so passive-aggressive about it.” It’ll have to wait until after the whole family reunion thing, though. And after that… well, who knows?

You push the thoughts of the future to the side and focus on not losing track of Pax in the fog. Now that you think about it, you definitely want to see Fen’s reaction to this.

It’s some time later, and as far as you’re concerned, everything worked out fine in the end. The Family’s reunited, those black splotches on Fen’s face apparently started fading after Usurper died, Pax is back for real (as his siblings verified pretty quickly- he might have started as a poor facsimile you made, but he really did become “himself” again after getting his mask back), and while Pax’s world might still be destroyed, he’s already planning to build it back up- and, after you mentioned the Architect’s predicament, he promised to fix the situation for her, too.

You should be happy. You know you should. But something just feels off, and you know exactly what it is.

Anonymous said to seekerquest: What’s wrong, Seeker?

“You.” you say aloud, pointing up at the white box. “I never found out what you are. Fen had a few theories after I told him, but I still don’t know. You’ve never said anything about what or who you are, you’re just… there, suggesting a bunch of ideas that are sometimes helpful and most of the time aren’t. Who are you people? What are you?”

There’s silence, and then there’s a lot of responses, overflowing and cutting each other off- you hear “just an ordinary guy who wants to help the weird bunny” and “I don’t think we’re the ones who are supposed to explain that” and “Seeker, I am your father” and “lmao how do you expect us to know” and a lot of other things, but then, cutting through everything else and drowning them out, there’s just one of them you can fully hear and see:

seekerquest said to seekerquest: They’re nobody. Just like you.

If you had a heart, you feel like it’d be pounding out of your chest right now. “Wh-what?” you manage shakily. This one feels… different. It sounds and looks like it’s everywhere, everything, like it’s the entire universe… including you.

The world falls away, and you see them, for the first time, alternatively standing and sitting in perfect patient lines in the abyss.

They’re bipedal furless creatures, all of them, staring at screens and tapping at them- sometimes on keyboards in front of them, sometimes directly touching the screen. And in front of all of them, there’s a being quite like yourself staring back at you. It doesn’t have ears, though, or a nose, or fur- its entire body is hairless gray skin with no texture, like a sketch brought to life, save for the part covered by the hooded sweater it’s wearing. It grins, revealing teeth sharpened to the point of being literally triangular.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: I was honestly kind of unsure of whether we’d ever get here a few times. Yet, here we are! Yay for me!

“What are you?” you hear yourself ask, as if from a distance, and your voice almost sounds like that of the entity staring back at you.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: You can call me “Arc.” That name’s gonna mean more to them than it will to you, though.

Apparently, it does, as the creatures start muttering among themselves in surprise. “Okay, uh, ‘Arc.’” you manage. “I’m going to guess you’re one of the gods, then? They’ve all got three-letter names, too, so…”

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Well, yes, but actually no. I’m… a tier above them, I guess. So are these guys, even if they don’t look it.

That answers nothing. “Then what are you?”

seekerquest said to seekerquest: The only major difference between us, asides from the obvious, is that I made them and the world they’re in. Outside of here, I’m pretty much powerless comparatively, which is another similarity between us, I guess. Neat how those little parallels work out. Instead of just setting tasks for them and letting them do whatever, though, I control them directly.

the architect said to seekerquest: That doesn’t make any sense. They would’ve said something about that at some point if it were the case.

You privately agree, but you don’t know how powerful this “Arc” is or what it wants with you, so you may as well hear it out. “So you’re like the voices in my head, but… for them?”

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Not exactly. It’s more of a puppet-puppeteer situation, honestly. Same for everybody else in this world.

“Does that include me?” you ask, feeling a chill run down your spine. The Architect doesn’t say anything, but you’re getting the feeling she’s freaked out by this as much as you are.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Only mostly. You’re a sort of wild card. See, these guys, the ones you refer to as “the voices,” are the ones who give you suggestions, and I interpret them. It’s part of my job.

Arc smirks at some inside joke in the last sentence, but you ignore that for right now. “And what is your job?” you ask.

With a flourish of its hand, Arc pulls a thin, pen-shaped length of plastic out of thin air and points it at you.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Making all of this possible. The really funny thing is, this isn’t even the only world I have- you have no idea how many other projects I have in various states of incompletion. Not that yours isn’t special, of course- it’s finally coming to an end, for one, and I do intend to revisit this universe in the future.

“C-coming to an end?!” Naturally, you freak out upon hearing something like that.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Don’t be so melodramatic, I’m just talking about the current story. Like I said, I will be coming back here, don’t worry. You might not necessarily be part of the next story, but it’ll still be your world and you’ll still exist. There’s nothing you can do about it, so just accept it and move on.

“This still doesn’t explain anything!” you shout, frustrated laughter bubbling in your throat.

seekerquest said to seekerquest: It doesn’t matter if you’re satisfied with the explanation. What matters is whether they are. If it weren’t for them, your story might very well have died before it even started. As it is, you got to exist for this short, short while, and isn’t that what matters? That you existed at all? Or have you changed your mind over the past several hours from what you told Fen earlier?

You fight back the growing existential dread and stare Arc dead in the eyes. “Why are you telling me this? Why now?”

seekerquest said to seekerquest: Same answer goes for all of those questions: “Why not?”

And then, just as quickly as it began, it’s over, and you’re standing in the hallway once more.

It’s yet another part of your short, short life, and you were, as you have always been, the Seeker.

#seeker #seekerquest

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katedoesfics · 4 years

Text

Shadows of Hyrule | Chapter 78

Link quite literally slept through the next two days, only getting up when his stomach demanded that he eat. When his phone alerted him to a call or text, he lifted his head enough to check to see who it was from. Unless it was Mipha, he mostly ignored these alerts. He would have slept through the rest of the summer if he had the chance, but there was still one last thing he needed to; return the Master Sword. The Triforce on hand was a reminder of that. It was dim, but it had been pulsing softly ever since he and Zelda sealed Ganondorf away. He knew he couldn’t waste any more time, but a part of him was sad to part with the sword. It wouldn’t be there waiting for him, leaning against the wall in the corner of his room. As anxious as he was to get back to his normal life, normal life seemed rather dull.

Still, Link finally pulled himself out of his bed, and without a word to his father or his friends, he left the house with the sword and made his way back to the forest where he had found it. If it were still there. The last time they tried to close the portal, the forest seemed to have mysteriously disappeared with no explanation at all. This time, however, the forest was there, just as he had remembered it, seemingly waiting for the return of the Master Sword.

There was no voice to call to him, but he didn’t need it to guide him like he had the first time he wandered through. It was as if he had navigated his way through the bizarre forest time and time again; he knew the path like the back of his hand, picking his way over the brush, weaving in and out between the trees. He was unfazed when a fog crept in around him, but just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, and soon the forest opened up into the meadow. In the center, in the light of the sun, was the pedestal that homed the Master Sword.

Link looked down at the ancient pedestal, covered in dirt and moss. There was a deep slit in the center where he had pulled the sword six months ago. And now, it was time to return it, though it felt as if he were saying goodbye forever to a very close friend. He turned his gaze to the sword in his hand and let his fingers run over the blade. He turned back to the pedestal and before he changed his mind, he placed the sword back into its hold, pushing it in until it would not go any further. He kept his hand on the hilt for a moment, then pulled upwards, but the sword did not budge. He let a light sigh escape his lips, then worked off the string of the charm his father had given him and slid it into his pocket.

“ Goodbye, Master... Thank you...”

Link looked down at the sword and smiled. He saluted it casually before turning his back on it and making his way out of the forest. Once he was passed the treeline, he looked over his shoulder, expecting the forest to disappear. Though it remained, he was sure it would be gone soon enough, protecting the precious weapon that now slept within.

*****

When Link returned, Daruk, Revali, and Teba were waiting for him.

“Where the hell have you been?” Daruk asked.

“Yeah, way to ignore our texts,” Revali said. “Now that you got a girlfriend you’re too good to respond to us?”

“Yeah,” Link said. “Because those group messages were so important.”

“I don’t know how I got dragged into that,” Teba said. He sneered at Revali. “Why the hell did you add me to that?”

“But if you weren’t in it,” Link started, “you would have missed all those gems like.” He paused and fished his phone out of his pocket, scrolling through the messages. He grinned and pointed at the screen, reading the text out loud. “When someone says ‘hold your horses’ they are telling you to be stable.”

“It’s true!” Revali said. “I just realized that!”

“Were you high?” Daruk asked.

“Yeah, probably,” Revali said with a grin.

“What do you want?”

“We are here to discuss the official disbanding of Hyrule’s Champions,” Revali announced.

“Excellent,” Link said. “Just in time. I just dumped the sword.”

“Aw,” Revali said. “Now you’re not cool like the rest of us.”

Link rolled his eyes.

“Do you think you can handle the city this year while we’re off being awesome?”

“Don’t be like that,” Teba said. “You know he’s gonna miss us terribly.”

“We are the only friends he’s got,” Revali said with a frown. “Poor Link.”

Link shrugged. “I’m sure I’ll survive.”

“He’s got a girlfriend now,” Daruk said. “He’s already doing better than you.”

“But does he get laid?” Revali said. “At least I got laid.”

Teba snorted. “When was the last time that happened?”

“Hey,” Revali snapped. “I’ve been a little busy saving the world.” He turned back to link. “Speaking of the Yiga Clan.”

“No one was talking about the Yiga Clan,” Teba said.

“Look,” Link started. “I talked to him, alright?”

“And?” Daruk asked.

“And,” he said slowly. “He told me not to worry about it.”

“That’s exactly what they say when we should be worried about it.”

“He has it under control,” Link said. “We don’t need to be involved.”

“Maybe he’s the one with the Yiga Clan,” Revali said.

“Shut it,” Link growled. “I’m staying out of it. I trust him.”

Revali nodded. “Alright. Fine. If Mr. Hero says it’s fine, then it’s fine.” He wiped his hands together. “Won’t be our problem, anyway. Just remember, you’ll be missing half your crew. Don’t get into trouble. Or killed.”

Link smiled. “You take the fun out of everything.”

“I’m going to miss this,” Revali said, then shrugged. “I’m sure I’ll find someone in college to pick on.”

Link frowned. “You’re replacing me? I thought we had something special.”

Revali winked and threw him two finger guns. “Come on, men” he said, turning away. “I still got some partying to do before I gotta ditch this city.” He turned to Link over his shoulder. “Not you.”

“It’s fine,” Link said. “I’m gonna go get laid.”

Revali threw his hand up in the air, half of a high-five. “Nice!”

Teba shook his head and lowered Revali’s hand for him. “Come on, Idiot,” he said. “Or I’m ditching you to get laid, too.”

Daruk followed them out of the driveway. “I can’t believe everyone’s getting laid except me.”

*****

The rest of the summer went just as Hyrule’s Champions hoped it would go. They stayed out late and slept through the mornings, more often than not in each other’s company in one way or another, and usually with three extra tagalongs; Aryll, Riju, and Teba. They spent their days roaming the city or keeping the local restaurants open with their bottomless pits. And from time to time, they dropped by their favorite arcade, only to be chased out by the owner an hour later after an unruly game of laser tag.

And everywhere they went, they were recognized. Children ran up to the for autographs. Teens asked for selfies. Even the older crowd seemed to regard them with a respectful nod, despite the varying degrees of gossip and arguments that had ensued following the first media outbreak. And when it got to be too much for them, they escaped the city to the countryside, returning to their favorite lake with a case of beer.

But the summer quickly came to a close, and before they knew it, Urbosa, Daruk, Revali, and Teba parted ways with their friends to begin their first year in college. Urbosa moved south to the Gerudo region to study law at a prestigious college. Daruk went to Akkala to a school known for their boxing and wrestling teams, which he decided to get into, proudly stating to his friends that he would have to hold back, otherwise there would be no challenge for him.

And despite his father’s refusal to help get into college, Revali managed to follow Teba to a school in Hebra, stating that he would have a babe on each arm and a suit made of ‘hundos’ when he graduated. As far as the group knew, he simply went in with the intent to get a degree in business, but whether he would actually graduate was an entirely different story, considering the college was known to be one of the biggest party schools in the kingdom. “Well, there’s nothing else to do up there,” was Revali’s defense.

The city - and their lives - were much quieter once their friends left for college. But senior year was quickly approaching for Link, Mipha, and Zelda, with promise of heavy work loads and one final push for college applications. It would be enough to occupy their minds and give them a normal life once more, but still, they couldn’t help but to miss the way things were a year ago when the group was whole.

But the night before their first day of senior year, they were all dragged into another group text message, courtesy of Urbosa.

My little babies are seniors tomorrow. Pack a healthy lunch and study hard! I’m looking at you, Link!

Revali didn’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity to tease Link. Let’s be real here. He’s not going to college. He’s gonna milk the hero thing for the rest of his life.

Teba’s response was next. Why am I a part of this…

Because youre our cheerleader, bitch, texted Revali.

Revali we’re sitting next to each other. There was a lull in the chat for a moment until Teba texted again. Revali punched me.

Urbosa responded with an emoji shaking its head.

You bitches are coming to my first fight, Daruk texted.

Link doesn’t condone violence, Revali said. Make love not war guys.

Dude, Link replied. Youre like a 3 days drive away.

Its a 4 hour drive, loser. Dont you miss me?

Link replied with a heart emoji. So much.

Why dont you stick it in his butt, came Revali’s mature reply.

Don’t be jealous of our relationship, Link said.

Does Mipha know? Teba asked.

We have an open relationship, Mipha finally chimed in.

Does that mean youre open for business? Revali said.

Eat shit, Link quickly replied.

Link and Mipha sitting in a tree, Revali texted.

Oh shit, Link said.

Revali finished the song with a series of kissing emojis and various other symbols that suggested more than kissing.

Omg dont tell her that Link said.

Link, we’re dating.

He responded with two blushing emoji faces.

Where the fuck is Zelda, Urbosa texted.

After a moment, Zelda’s text came through. Hylia, why have you put me into this insufferable group of people.

You love us, Revali said.

Destiny, Daruk said. Isn’t that kinda her thing?

We belong together, Revali texted.

Revali is singing, now, Teba said. I cannot believe I’m stuck with him for the next four years.

Welcome to my hell, Link said.

I’m muting you all, Zelda said. Some of us have school in the morning.

Suckas, Revali said.

Revali, you do, too, Teba said.

I didn’t come here to go to school.

Good night idiots, Zelda said.

Good night my precious lil babies, Urbosa texted. I love you all and i hope you have a good first day of school! Send mama pictures! And BEHAVE!!

What happens if we don’t behave? Revali asked, following that with a series of winking faces. Are you going to spank me?

Zelda left the chat.

Mipha left the chat.

Link left the chat.

Urbosa left the chat.

Ha.

Daruk left the chat.

FUCKERS.

Teba left the chat.

#legend of zelda #breath of the wild #fic #fanfic #loz #botw #shadows of hyrule #soh78

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mlpdestinyverse · 5 years

Photo

“First Day”

Feat. Astral Dusk, Terra Rosa

First day of high school at Canterlot High and Astral Dusk meets a few… interesting characters. Some more familiar than others.

Story and Description Under The Cut (this is a long one!)

-Astral Dusk sits awkwardly within the foyer of Princess Twilight’s castle. His eyes drift from one mare’s face to the other as both his mother and the princess stand shoulder to shoulder, giddily peering into the screen of a camera- Sunset Shimmer: Okay, now turn your head a liiittle to the left… Astral Dusk: *sighs and shakes his head to himself, following her directions for the umpteenth time with a smile* You know mom, if I didn’t know any better, I’d really think I was graduating instead of heading off for my first day. Twilight Sparkle: *giggles* I’d think the first day of high school is equally as much of a big deal, Astral! Sunset: Aaand done~ *clicks one more picture and smiles at her son, trotting forward to close the distance* ‘Course it is! This is going to be a whole new chapter of your life, buddy! Astral: *rubs his foreleg, or at least the sleeve of the leather jacket pulled around his form* Right… Twilight: By the way Astral, you look absolutely dashing in your jacket! *grins at Sunset* Reminds me of another pony back in the day~ Sunset: *gives her son a lookover, a soft glimmer of pride in her teal eyes* Yeah…good times. *ever so slightly adjusts the collar of his jacket with her magic, earning a chuckle from him* Now, are you sure you already brought everything you’ll need to Terra’s house? Not that I mind running over to drop something off, but you know. Astral: *smiles* I’m fine, mom. My room’s already set up and everything, down to the bedsheet covers. Twilight: *nudges her friend* Relax, Sunset, we both know everything’s set and ready *lifts her head proudly* Two Twilights planning arrangements is even better than one if I do say so myself~ Sunset: *chuckles and playfully shoulders her friend* Yeah, yeah, don’t let it get to your head, Twi. Astral: *adjusts his posture and dips his head deeply* Thank you again for letting me transfer to Canterlot High, princess. *straightens up, appearing determined* I promise I’ll learn as much as I can about friendship there. I’ll always appreciate being able to complete my education alongside Terra, and I won’t take your kindness for granted- Twilight: *laughs* Geez, Astral, don’t be so serious about it! *places a hoof on his shoulder, smiling gently* You’re a responsible colt, one I trust wholeheartedly. But please don’t forget to have fun, too! Laughter is a very important part of friendship and harmony! *pats him* I’m sure having Terra around will make that part pretty easy~ Astral: *smiles gratefully* Yeah. You’re not wrong about that. Twilight: So! Would you like us to walk with you to the mirror? Would that help with the nerves? Astral: *winces, realizing how obvious his stiffness must be* N-no, I can make the journey by myself. Thank you, princess. Twilight: Alright! Well I wish you all the luck, Astral! -As Astral watches Twilight head up her staircase, more than likely heading to her throne room, he feels the slightest shift of his bangs and realizes his mother’s magic brushing his hair to the side. Face-to-face, a gentle look full of warmth greets him.- Sunset: You’re going to do great…even if things get hard, remember that you have me, Terra, Timber and both Twilights behind you, as well as all the potential friends just waiting to meet you. And I’ll always be a single written message away. All you have to do is ask Twi to write it. Astral: *lowers his gaze and nods softly, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding* …I just hope I won’t…you know. Give myself away. Sunset: *chuckles, eyes crinkling in amusement* Well Astral, you’ve only ever had seven years to get the gist of being human. But I’m pretty sure you’ll be okay, pal. *leans up to peck the side of his head. Pulling back she grasps his shoulders, looking him straight in the eye* Hey…I know you can’t help feeling nervous around your own peers, but I promise you. Be you, and once you find the right friends, even if it’s just a few, things will be that much more bearable. And if anyone gives you grief… *darkly stares off into the distance* …well, I’ll end them. Astral: *laughs and leans his head down to rest it against his mother’s* Thanks for the pep talk. I’ll do my best. Sunset: *smiles and pulls him into a full embrace* I mean you’re my kid. I know you will. Astral: *pulls away, sharing one last smile before he turns towards a nearby hallway.* Well…here I go. I’ll um…see you this Saturday, mom. Sunset: Yep! See you, buddy! -With that, Astral and Sunset both set off, his mother following Twilight up the staircase while he starts down the hallway. The crystal walls that make up the castle’s great halls gently echo the colt’s hoof clacks, breaking the eerie early morning silence. Upon turning a corner, Astral comes to realize there is a faint second series of hoof clacks up ahead. From a different adjacent hallway further up the hall, a small form turns their own corner. It takes everything in Astral not to curse and turn the opposite direction when he recognizes the form’s purple coat and the gradient of midnight blue, red, and orange in their mane. Astral eyes Prince Nova Spark as the younger colt obliviously walks in his direction on the opposite side of the hall, a book floating in front of his face within the grasp of magenta magic. As much as Astral tries to avert his eyes and focus forward on his own path, his pupils betray him and continuously flicker towards the other colt. Nova, fully adorned with his blue royal attire accented by shimmering silver designs and a white cravat, appears unaware of his surroundings. His expression is oddly tired and tense as his deep blue eyes scan the pages of what appears to be a book on arcana. It isn’t until the two colts are a few tail lengths away from one another that the prince’s ear twitches and Nova calmly peers up. The colt’s eyes blow open suddenly, a sharp snort of laughter escaping him before he lifts the book up higher to obscure his face. But the sound of muffled snickers and the shaking of Nova’s shoulders isn’t lost on Astral. And though he knows it’d be best to simply ignore the colt…- Astral: *stops in place before Nova can pass him, narrowing his eyes* What’s so funny, prince? Nova Spark: *a fit of laughter echoes from behind his book, and lowering it, the disbelieving, cheeky grin Nova wears greatly contrasts his demeanor from moments ago* L-leather? On you? Dude, come on! *ignores Astral’s pointed glare as another fit of laughter hits him, wiping away a tear* W-what, did you lose the rest of your clothes in a dumpster fire? Who approved this?? Astral: *feels his face grow hot, uncertain whether from self-consciousness or anger* I can wear what I want, Nova. Nova: Yeah yeah, sure, but just imagine it! *stands up straight, voice robotic and expression serious; his way of mimicking Astral, no doubt*Greetings fellow humans. I am not a pony in disguise, but your everyday leather-wearing bad boy. By the way, wanna see my rock collection? Astral: *jaw shifts stiffly* …incredible how even after years of “royal training”, you’re still just as impudent. *glares* Congratulations on being nowhere close to your own mother’s level of decorum after all this time. I’m sure she’s proud. Nova: *stiffens, sucking in a sharp breath. A few beats later he glares back haughtily* G-geez, it was just a joke, genius! *huffs, snapping his head away and bringing his book back up indifferently* Whatever. Hope you manage to find a sense of humor on the other side. Good luck with that. -Seeing Nova trot off and round the corner, Astral rolls his eyes and heaves out a sigh. Despite the sliver of self-doubt threatening to rise up again, the colt fights it down, refusing to let the prince’s words ruin what should be an exciting morning. He travels the rest of the distance to his proper destination, and there, he spots a unicorn guard standing outside of the door. Noticing his approach, the guard opens the door with his magic aura and salutes him- Guard: Greetings, Sir Astral! I have been assigned by Princess Twilight to tend to this room and the opening and closing of the portal for the duration of your dimensional travels. She informed me that the journal you possess will serve as the key. Astral: Ah, yes sir. Here. -Astral reaches into his teal and brown saddlebag to pull out his magical brown journal, one with his own cutie mark displayed on the front. As he passes the journal over and steps into the room, the guard following behind him, there’s an uncomfortable twinge to his stomach at the thought of leaving such a personal belonging behind with a stranger. But if he had to trust anyone with it, one of Princess Twilight’s trained guards would be on the list. And with the cellphone his mother had gifted him, he knew he wouldn’t have a need for his journal outside of his visits back home anyway. To the colt, it was a shame the princess couldn’t conjure up a third set of books or another pair of magical objects to create a connection between the portals, but he’s become all too aware of Twilight’s wariness in recreating too much of a magical influx between the dimensions. On the other side of the room, the complex construction that empowers the Crystal Mirror towers over the two ponies. Without pause, the guard lifts the journal up with his magic and places it in its proper pedestal high above the mirror. With a luminous glow, the cutie mark decorating its cover shoots out a series of purple electrical sparks. A familiar sight, the streams of energy seem to erratically course through the contraption before shooting into the mirror, activating it as the glass’s surface swirls with magical energy. Anticipation pushing him forward, Astral murmurs a quick thanks towards the guard and steels himself. He steps through the portal, and for a moment, he feels like he’s walking on air within a swirling void of colors. He vaguely notices his form reshaping itself and adjusts his stance to balance himself. Within seconds he then finds himself pushing through a thin barrier, and what was once a void of distorted sound and swirls gives way to a peaceful silence. Blinking his eyes, Astral takes in the faint blue sky above him and the faint pastels beginning to peek through the distance, casting shadows all around him. As planned, arriving as early as he did meant entering the quiet, empty courtyard of Canterlot High. Well, almost empty- ???: DUUUUSKKYYYY- Astral: *wheezes as he’s suddenly side-tackled to the ground. Locating the source, he finds a familiar shade of purple and green hair at the corner of his vision right beside his head. The next thing he processes are the girl’s arms wrapped around his neck, her legs interlaced with his yet blissfully kicking behind her* T-Terra! Geez! *can’t help a laugh, pushing himself up on an elbow* Maybe warn a guy next time…I thought I was supposed to be standing on two feet here. Terra: *pulls back to grin into his face* Where’s the fun in that~? *hops to her feet and uses both hands to pull Astral back up. Dusting off his jacket she smirks* Well heckin dang, sir, you sure brought your A-game! Astral: *feels his cheeks heat up for the second time and groans* Terra, don’t tease me… Terra: *grins wider* Aww, but I like it when you get all embarrassed! -Astral prepares a counter, but then notices a shift in movement behind Terra. An unseen figure until then is leaning their shoulder against the corner of the statue-portal, staring stunned in their direction. Feeling himself go rigid, Astral instinctively grabs Terra’s shoulder tightly, dread clawing at him. His reaction seems to startle the gawking dark-haired human, causing them to jerk back- Astral: *squeezes Terra’s shoulder, the fright of being discovered so soon taking him* Terra… Terra: *whips around with great confusion and apprehension, then jumps in realization* OH! Oh nonono! *turns back to Astral and frantically waves her hands* Dusky, it’s okay! This is my friend Monochrome! They know all about this! Astral: *brows knit in recognition, and looking closely, he recognizes the curve of the teen’s green eyes and the tied up white-and-gray streaked hair; an appearance shared by his sister’s own friend* Monochrome…? Monochrome: *holds up hands, frowning* I’m so sorry for scaring you. I really should have said something. I just…*glances over at the tall, flat surface of the statue’s pedestal beside them* …my mom told me things, but I don’t think I was actually prepared to see it in person. Astral: *eyebrows shoot up* “Told you”? My mom and her friends agreed to keep the portal a secret. Monochrome: *rubs their wrist* Yeah well, if you know anything about my mom Rainbow Dash, you can probably imagine her accidentally letting some details slip. *glances at Terra, the corner of their mouth quirking up* I actually would have thought she was making it up, but Terra’s presentation when we were kids only corroborated the story. Astral: *pauses, then blankly turns to his friend* …you mean that one class presentation you made about Equestria? Terra: *laughs nervously, taking a step back* Y-you mean about my bestie and Equestria? Y-yep! The very one! G-guess I forgot to tell you that one of my friends actually believed me! Craaazy, right?? Astral: …*sighs deeply and lowers his head* Terra: (!!!) H-HEY MAN, I was seven! I didn’t realize it was that big of a secret! *crosses arms and pouts* And our teacher ended up misunderstanding the whole thing anyway, and I got an A for creativity, AND we have a solid backup story for you because of it, so it worked out! Astral: *rubs forehead* It’s fine, Terra… *brushes the same hand back through his hair, remeeting Monochrome’s gaze* Well, you’re family with one of my mom’s friends, and you’re friends with Terra. So…if anyone had to know, it probably should be you. Terra: Yep yep! But let’s not forget official introductions! *noisily clears throat, lifting a presenting hand* Monochrome Dashielle, this is Astral Dusk! *eagerly motions towards Monochrome* Astral Dusk, this is Monochrome Dashielle, one of my best friends that I’ve known since preschool! *counts off her fingers* Also known as Mo, Momo, Chrome, Chromey, Dashie- *folds hands behind her back and leans over, fluttering her eyelashes up at Monochrome* But I just call 'em Ellie, cause it’s cute just like them~ Monochrome: *shakes head fondly, lightly nudging their friend* Not as cute as “Terri Rosie”. Astral: *eyes light up with recognition* So YOU’RE Ellie…Terra brought up your name throughout the years. *rubs neck* All uh, good things of course. Monochrome: *crosses their arms and smiles at Terra* Is that right? Terra: *grins up at them* Guilty! *turns to Astral* Anyway, you don’t have to worry about Ellie! They’re probably one of the most trustworthy people you’ll know! They came from the element of loyalty after all. Right? *quickly and repeatedly pokes Astral’s side with both pointers* Riiiiiiight~? Astral: *laughs and swats at her hands* Right, right. Monochrome: *bows their head* I know saying this won’t prove anything, but this secret’s safe with me. I promise. Astral: *smiles* Alright. I’ll hold you to that. Terra: *hums happily, rocking back and forth on her heels* By the waaay Ellie, Dusky may look and act all serious, but he’s really just a big nerdy goober on the inside. Promise. Astral: *sighs* Way to blow my second cover. Terra: *snickers, lacing her fingers behind her head* What can I say? I love my big dorky horse friend~ Astral: *before he can show his own pout, he hears a chuckle and notices Monochrome walking closer to him* Monochrome: *holds out their hand, gaze kind* That’s good to know. You’ll fit right in, then. Astral: *surprised at first, but with a meek smile, reaches out to loosely grip their hand* That’s reassuring… Terra: Well awesome! *peers down at her phone* HM, we’ve got some time before the school opens, and Sunny said she’s getting ready as we speak! Monochrome: *brightens, subconsciously leaning back against the sculpture again* Can’t wait…I haven’t seen Sunny since vaca- *eyes widen and they quickly pull away from the sculpture base’s surface. Mo stares at it in confusion before reaching out with their fingertips, brushing the smooth marble* What…happened to the portal? Astral: Oh. *reaches out too, letting out a hum of understanding as his fingers hit the cold, solid surface* It’s been closed on the other side until I need to cross back over. It’s just an extra precaution. Terra: Yep! But hey, lean or poke all you want! You don’t ever have to worry about accidentally falling in, mkay~? Magical portal properties and whatnot! *stage whispers* It’s classified. Monochrome: Huh… *carefully leans back, crossing their arms* Okay…I’ll take your word. -Aside from listening to the sound of Terra and Monochrome’s idle chatter beside him, Astral spends his time observing the school grounds before him. As the sky and landscape around him lightens with the slowly rising sun, he notices the roaring of engines as cars pull in and park in the nearby parking lot, as well as the approach of various students towards the front of the school. The uncertainty and nervousness from earlier begin to flood his stomach once more at the sight of the teens he’d potentially be spending the next four years with. His thoughts are interrupted by a squeal beside him- Terra: There they are! -Astral traces Terra’s starry eyes and waving arms to find a dark blue car rolling into the parking lot. The minute it parks, the passenger door swings open and he watches as a small, short-haired girl hurriedly pulls her feet out of the vehicle. As if having noticed them when they had pulled up, the brown-haired girl immediately looks in their direction with the utmost glee and excitement- ???: Guys! *tosses her backpack on and throws the door car closed, rushing over* -Both Terra and Monochrome step forward, each holding an arm open as the girl runs to them. She throws her arms around them and is held at once by her friends, giggling madly as Terra nuzzles her face- Terra: Sunny I missed you so, so much! ???: *gives the two a firm, affectionate squeeze* Gosh, I missed you too! *pulls back to smile sweetly at them* Travelling is nice and all, but I’m going to appreciate seeing you guys every day again. Terra: Heck yeah! *pumps her fists into the air* The ponytail squad is back together!! Monochrome: *laughs, playfully ruffling the loose hairs on their friend’s orange and yellow streaked head* Welcome back, Summer. Summer: *giggles and takes Monochrome’s hand to pat it within her own* Thanks Momo~ *glances over at Astral and gasps softly, turning her sparkly-eyed attention to him* Oh my gosh, you must be Astral! Astral: *smiles lightly and nods* Guess you heard about me? Summer: You have no idea! *striding forward, the height difference of nearly a foot between Astral and the much shorter girl becomes evident. She takes his larger hands into hers and squeezes them* I’m Summer! Summer Rush! I’ve been so excited to meet you! *smiles at Terra over her shoulder* And you’re just as pretty as she described! Astral: Wha- Terra: *throws back her head and groans unnecessarily loud* Suuuunnnny nooOOO! Now it’ll get to his head! Astral: WHA- no it won’t! Summer: *releases a fit of giggles. She pulls her hands away* Well, welcome back to Canterlot City! I should probably introduce you- *her pale blue eyes flicker to somewhere behind Astral, and her expression shifts to one of confusion* -to…my…? -Astral jumps when a pair of hands suddenly cup over his eyes from behind. The touch is light enough not to be stifling but present enough to obscure his vision. From behind, he hears a very loud whisper- ???: Psst, guys. If you were going to replace me you should’ve given me, like, a week’s notice? *sighs dramatically* Honestly. What went wrong? Is it because he’s taller? -Astral hears a snort of laughter, accompanied by a chuckle- Summer: *a hint of amusement in her voice* Alright Sky, let’s leave the new guy alone. Sky: Baww, you’re no fun… -The hands disappear and a new shape twirls around Astral into his vision. A boy with waves of pale streaked hair growing just past his shoulders blinks a visible bright orange eye back at him. Whatever smile the boy was wearing as he faces Astral abruptly falls. He instead stands there, staring blankly at him for a few seconds. The boy then draws out a long whistle and rests his arm against Summer’s shoulder like an armrest, the small girl giving the newcomer a side-eye the moment he does. He doesn’t seem to notice as he locks eyes with Astral, expression one of great interest- ???: Heyhihello, have we met~? Astral: No, I’m…Astral Dusk? Who are you? Sky: *grins* I’m Skychaser~ You can call me Sky for short. *winks* And just so you know, I’m the guy you can go to for special private dance lessons~ Astral: *sweats in confusion* O-okay..? Summer: *stares incredulously at the ground, whispering softly* Five seconds…not even five seconds, Sky. Skychaser: *laughs and pushes himself off the girl* I’m just playing around, geez, relax! I’m on my best behavior here! Summer: *shakes her head and shoots Astral an apologetic smile* Sorry, don’t mind him, he’s a little…*motions vaguely at him* …yeah- SO ANYWAY, this is my brother! Sky: *twirls his hand in the air and dramatically bows* Older brother~ Charmed. Summer: *playfully rolls her eyes* Yes, older brother. Monochrome: Hard to believe, I know. *stifles a chuckle with their hand at the glare Sky shoots them* Sky: *sticks his tongue out at them before offering a friendlier smile to Astral* Summer said you four were all meeting up early, so I thought I’d tag along. Someone’s gotta keep these three out of troub- *whips his head and squints the moment both Mo and Summer choke out a laugh* Terra: Aww, c'mon, don’t be mean guys! *side steps to Astral’s side, smiling brightly* Chasey’s the newly designated big bro of the squad! Can’t help those bro instincts~ Sky: *grins wide* Damn right I am~ Summer: *giggles* Right, right, sorry! *composes herself and focuses on Astral with great intrigue* Anyway, enough about us! How was the trip here, Astral? I hope the plane ride wasn’t too bad? Astral: Aah, yeah it went just fine… *rubs the back of his neck* It was…quick? Summer: That’s good to hear! Sky: Oh! You’re not from here, right? Where are you from? Summer: AH, that’s right! You never saw Terra’s lovely presentation! Here, picture this, Sky. *closes her eyes serenely, waving a finger in the air* A beautifully vast land like our own, full of magical beasts and potential danger rounding every corner…~ Sky: Uh…what? -Astral nods slowly, Terra’s story of her childhood assignment, the misunderstandings that came from it, and the cover story she had thrown together as a result - one he had no choice but to adopt - taking the forefront of his mind- Astral: Yeah. Australia. Sky: Oooooohhhhh! *nods earnestly in understanding* Now I get it! Summer: Yeah! Terra has such a way with words~ -Astral feels himself relax and notices Terra’s own relieved shoulder sag. That is until Sky brings a hand to his chin, appearing confused- Sky: Wait, don’t they have accents over there? How come you don’t have one? Astral: *tenses up. Of all details for him to not have researched…* Oh, well…t-that is- Monochrome: *frowns* I think it might be a little invasive to ask that kind of question, Sky. Sky: O-oh, is it? *notices Astral’s discomfort. He scratches his cheek awkwardly* Uh, sorry… Astral: *finds that relief again and shakes his head* No worries, Sky. -The second Skychaser turns to say something to his sister, Astral notices the slightest shift of movement in his peripheral. From Monochrome’s form, leaning back against the school’s mascot statue with their arms crossed, Astral sees the teen giving him a silent and obscured thumbs up from under one of their arms. His eyes shift between Monochrome’s calm face, turned away from him and watching their friends, and the gesture. He finds himself relaxing, smiling gratefully at the other teen- Summer: *claps her hands together* So, Astral! How were your summer assignments? I hope you got through them okay? Terra: *snickers* Astral’s the last person you’ll ever need to worry about for school work! We tag-teamed it, but he was the real big brain between the two of us~ Astral: *notices everyone’s attention, heat creeping up to his cheeks. He averts his eyes and slides his hands into his pockets* It’s….not that big of a deal. I just cross-referenced our answers and paced it so we could get it done on time. Terra’s just as smart… Sky: Dang it Ter, you should’ve mentioned that earlier…*pulls an orange folder out of seemingly nowhere* Oh well. Guess I’ll just copy Summer’s. Summer: WH- when did you-?! *attempts to grab the folder, but Sky easily holds it out of her reach* Skychaser you-! You promised me you’d do yours! Sky: Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t~ *Summer stumbles a bit as Sky skips away from her, dangling the folder above him with a toothy grin* But I think I’ll hold onto this either way~ Unless you want to take it from me! -Astral notices silence descends upon the group as Sky dances away, humming a playful tune as he creates distance between himself and the group. Terra and Monochrome exchange glances while Summer stares off expressionlessly at her brother, sighing deeply- Summer: *slides off her backpack and hands it out to Monochrome* Hold onto this, please? -Once Monochrome takes it from her grasp, Summer lowers herself into something akin to a crouched position, leaning into her fingertips she splays out on the ground before her. After a few beats of silence, Astral nearly leaps when the girl darts forward, sprinting at a speed that has her closing the distance between herself and her blissfully prancing brother in near milliseconds. With one glance over his shoulder, Skychaser’s gleeful expression morphs into one of sheer horror before he lets out a shrill scream and books it in the opposite direction- Terra: *places her hands on her hips, barely containing her laughter* Wow. It’s almost as if Summer was on a track team. Monochrome: *covers their mouth as they laugh* Serves him right, honestly. Astral: Um…*feels a nervous bead of sweat as he watches on. That nervousness and sweat only increase tenfold as he witnesses Summer jump onto Sky’s back, her legs wrapping around his waist while pulling her brother’s neck into a chokehold. He turns to the other two, pointing at the scene with great concern* UM? Monochrome: *chuckles* Don’t worry. This is pretty par for the course for them. Terra: *claps a hand on his back* Yeah, even if she totally could, she wouldn’t kill him or anything! Sky is Summer’s BBBFF~ -While confused, closer inspection has Astral realizing that Sky is somehow holding out against his sister’s attack, still holding her folder far out of her reach. Despite this, as the boy runs around aimlessly and struggles with Summer’s weight on his back, glimpses at their faces has Astral realizing they’re both laughing uncontrollably. It’s then that he hears a sharp ringing, and one look at the school has Astral noticing that a large crowd of students have gathered and are filing into the building- Terra: HOO, okay! *rolls her shoulders, creating a resounding clap with her hands before pointing towards the school* Let’s get this day started! Monochrome: *blows out some air, pushing off the statue to walk forward* Guess this is happening… Terra: *matches their step* It’ll be okay! I say tackling the day with a bit of optimism helps! *moves to get a good look at Monochrome’s hair, smirking* Hey hey, I’ve been wanting to ask, Ellie… where did the cute hair tie come from~? *reaches up and tugs at one of the green cloth protrusions* These look like itty bitty bunny ears~ -From the knowing raise of Terra’s eyebrows and the slowly growing pink shade to Monochrome’s pale cheeks, Astral can gather that something unspoken is being exchanged. Coughing into their hand, Mo once again crosses their arms, looking off into another direction as if to avoid eye contact- Monochrome: M-my friend gave it to me. She said I could start the year with a new look. Terra: Ah, yes, your friend. Your penpal friend. Texting buddy. The gal pal- -Astral blinks as one of Mo’s hands fly to Terra’s mouth, a once calm expression now wide-eyed and flustered. Their green eyes dart between Terra and Astral himself.- Monochrome: Yes, my penpal friend who is a girl who I also text, thank you for summarizing Terra. Terra: *pulls down Mo’s hand and half-heartedly pouts* But when are you going to drop a naaame?? I want to meet E! Monochrome: M-maybe one day, but…she’s shy and- Summer: Oh, oh! *slides in beside Astral, seemingly having caught up with her folder in hand. Smiles brightly* Are we talking about E~? Sky: *leans in from behind the group, smirking impishly* You mean the mysterious not-girlfriend. Monochrome: And I’m out, seeyouAstral. -Astral catches a glimpse of the teen’s burning cheeks as they swiftly stride ahead of the group and disappear into the crowd- Sky: Welp, guess we lost Momo. Summer: *baps his shoulder with the back of her hand* Way to be overly direct! Sky: Hey, I’M not the one who started a teasing fest! …for once. *mock scoffs, gripping his backpack straps* I’m hurt. I’m offended. I’m heading off to Geometry. Summer: …*sighs and touches his shoulder, smiling warmly* Yeah yeah, tough guy. Good luck, okay? You got this. -Sky glances back at her with an unreadable expression, and yet again, whatever is being silently exchanged is lost on Astral. The corner of Sky’s mouth then lifts ever so slightly into a soft smile. He wordlessly salutes the three, one Terra mimics back, before he walks off down a hall- Summer: Guess I’ll be going too! But I’ll see you in second period, Astral! *cheerily waves as she splits off* Bye-bye! Terra: See ya! *beams at Astral* Now, shall we~? *slides her hand into his before pulling him along* -Like numerous times in their past together, Astral allows his friend to lead the way. His eyes roam around the various busy hallways of the school, but inevitably he finds his mind distracted and his gaze returns to their connected hands. After a short moment, his hand gently squeezes hers, whether a small comfort for himself or as a signal of gratitude for her presence. As if receiving the message, even as she focuses on the crowded hall before them, he feels the squeeze of her own hand around his. He doesn’t miss the quirk of her lips, one he finds himself mirroring as he continues to follow. They eventually begin approaching a doorway when Terra noticeably perks up- Terra: Oh, I forgot to mention! There’s just one more person I want you to meet! She has first period with us and- -Terra pauses upon entering the doorway, staring into the classroom and proceeding forward with Astral behind her. He watches her make a beeline for an occupied desk in the middle of the classroom, where someone appears to have their head down and resting in their arms. The student’s long, cream-colored hair transitions to shades of pastel orange and caramel as it falls around them from their low ponytail. While Terra releases his hand to sit in the desk directly in front of the resting teen, fully turning her body around in her chair to face the figure, Astral slowly and timidly takes the free seat beside his new classmate. His eyes curiously flick between the two- Terra: *gently pokes the teen’s lowered head* Psst, Te! Forte, we’re here! *lowers her chin onto the back of her chair, puffing out her cheeks*C'mooon Te, you’re not allowed to pass out yet! The day hasn’t even started yet, girl! -Astral watches as the teen’s shoulders rise with a particularly deep inhale, the first sign of the girl’s apparent awakening. Slowly she pushes herself up, the veil of curls parting as she lifts her head. With heavy eyelids, the girl looks to Terra first, and then in a flash her bright magenta eyes meet his.

Astral finds himself stiffening and pulling himself away from the girl’s sharp, scrutinizing stare, her expression tight and without the faintest trace of emotion. While he has heard of 'murderous stares’, never before has Astral ever found himself seemingly pinned under one. …but the intimidating image before him suddenly breaks as the girl squeezes her eyes shut, covering her mouth as she lets out one long cat-like yawn. Her head lolls to a side as she rubs one of her eyes- Forte: *blinks sleepily* ….who’s that again? Terra: That’s Astral Dusk! My bud who lives far away! *leans forward to grin at Astral* And this is my buddy Forte! I’ve known her since elementary, like Ellie and Sunny! Forte: Oh yeah… *tiredly rests her head in one palm, lazy half-lidded gaze trained on him* The one who lives in…Australia. Or something. The one that one project was about? Astral: *quietly deadpans at Terra, who he notices is staring back, mouthing a soft “I’m so sorry”* That’s right…*clears his throat* It’s uh…nice to meet you. Forte: Same…and just so it’s out of the way; I’m not angry. *points at her stoic visage, tone remaining monotonous* This is just my face. Astral: (??) O…kay. Terra: *pokes Forte’s cheek, who doesn’t bat an eye* Yeah, a lot of people keep assuming that Te is glaring at them, but what they don’t know is that she’s just a sleepy child. *giggles* Like, all the time. Forte: *rests the side of her head on her desk, cheek squishing inward* Mmm…energy is too hard to come by. Terra: You’re dang right it can be!! But you still need to stay awake for class, missy! -Astral finds himself stricken by the sheer contrast in personalities before him. At the sound of another bell, his attention snaps forward while Terra turns back around in her chair. A teacher he and just about everyone else hadn’t even noticed standing in the room with them closes the door, and after sighing out her introduction as Ms. Wallflower Blush, she begins their Environmental Science period. A number of introductions, icebreakers, and a break down of the curriculum later, Astral is surprised to hear the bell ring once more. Gathering his things, he joins Terra and Forte in leaving the classroom, only stopping when Terra turns back to him with a comforting smile- Terra: Guess this is where we part until fifth period! But you’ll have Sunny and Ellie in your next class, so- *vigorously rubs his back* Don’t stress too much! Go meet a ton of new people! Astral: *attempts to mirror her smile* I’ll…be fine. I’ll see you, Terra. -Peering over, Astral gets a better look at Forte. While his eyes flicker over the girl’s numerous accessories - from the long purple cloth-like hair tie to the studded collar around her neck - his attention falls upon a small circular crochet pouch adorned with bead decorations, hanging from her neck as a chest-length necklace. While curious of its practicality and contents, the boy realizes the small time frame the three of them have and gives a quick nod to Forte- Astral: I guess I’ll see you around too? Forte: *yawns again, nonchalantly sliding her hands into the pockets of her cardigan* Yeah, probably…see you around. *saunters off in her own direction* -With one last friendly wave, Terra too skips off to her next class, leaving Astral on his own. Despite attempts to memorize the layout of the school and his potential hallway routes during the school’s open house, the boy ends up pulling out the map he had saved regardless. He nearly sighs as he walks, remembering that his next class is nearly on the other side of the school- ???: Astral! Hey Astral, wait up! Astral: *looks over his shoulder to see both Summer and Monochrome weaving around groups of students to catch up. He smiles as they reach him* Oh, hey…I didn’t think I’d see you two so soon. Summer: Same here! I guess our class wasn’t too far from yours! That means we can walk together from now on~ Monochrome: *adjusts the folder and notebook in their arm* It’s a nice coincidence. Astral: Yeah….*staring forward, he finds himself mentally retreating into himself as the two chat with one another. Yet he also feels a push within, urging him to engage in conversation despite feeling uncertain of an approach. He comes to notice the notebook in Monochrome’s arm, then. An idea occurs to him at that moment* Monochrome? I think I uh, heard from Terra that you’re a great artist. Maybe I can see some of your artwork some time. Summer: *exchanges a puzzled look with Monochrome before breaking out into a giggle fit* A-artist?? She said that? Monochrome: *lightly swats Summer’s shoulder, a hint of humor in their eyes* I can’t believe you’re laughing at that. Jerk. Summer: I-I know! I know! Blame Terra for the joke! Astral: *glances between the two, confused* Joke? Monochrome: *chuckles* Terra’s just messing with us. I can draw a decent blob- Summer: -they’re really, really cute blobs, though! Monochrome: -but I don’t have the creative mind for that sort of thing. So I never bothered to learn. *smiles at Summer* Honestly, Sunny’s better at creative ideas than I am. Summer: *giggles and waves them off* I don’t draw either! But I can sew and make really fun costumes! Monochrome: Now those you’ll have to see some time, Astral. She’s amazing at it. Summer: SHHH! No more flattery from you! *holds up a finger to her lips, smiling at Astral* But between you and me, I will admit that my own personal brand of creativity shines best during a game of Ogres & Oubliettes, as a proud dungeon master~ Maybe you can join our campaign some time! We can get you the full details on that later if you want~ Astral: O-oh! Sure, that sounds…fun. -Astral spends the rest of the walk deep in thought, the realization of dimensional differences between inhabitants fully sinking in for the very first time. As he mentally kicks himself to tread more carefully, the three find their way into their next classroom. Sitting down, he notices Summer take her seat beside him while Monochrome sits in the free seat on her other side. Pulling out his supplies from his backpack to settle on his desk, he takes out his pencil pouch for a mechanical pencil. But as he does so, he pauses. Squints. Pulls the pouch closer to his face.- Summer: *notices Astral’s furrowed brow* Is something wrong, Astral? Astral: (!) Oh…*places the pouch down on his desk, frowning* It’s nothing serious, I just…have less pencils than I started with. *turns the pouch around, looking for holes. Finding none he checks the smallest pouch of his backpack, but sees that nothing had fallen out* That’s…so weird. I swear they were here earlier. Two are just missing. Summer: That is odd…*pulls her backpack into her lap, rummaging inside of it* Here, you can take two of mine- Astral: Ah no, it’s alright! I have three others I can use, two less isn’t really an issue… *mumbles* Even if I like how they write… Summer: Aw, alright…well if you ever need anything, lemme know! *happily begins pulling out items, one by one* I have extra paper, erasers, hand sanitizer, mouthwash, headache meds, some energy bars- Astral: *laughs* Wow. You wouldn’t happen to have a first-aid kit in there, would you? Summer: *pauses in her rummaging, staring at Astral with wide eyes. She slowly lifts her hand, revealing what is, in fact, a small first aid kit* …yeah, why? Do you need it? Astral: Oh…*shakes his head out of his stupor* Uh, no! No, I’m good, thank you. Summer: *sighs in relief* Okay! I’m glad. -Going through yet another class of lesson breakdowns and icebreakers, Astral exchanges another round of farewells with Terra’s friends. As he traverses the halls alone, once more relying on his trusty map, he begins to feel…strange prickling at the back of his neck. While he attempts to ignore it, the sensation stays with him until he rounds a corner, to which the feeling escapes him altogether. Astral finally stops and hesitantly turns his head, his eyes darting around the crowds of students in search of anything amiss. When nothing catches his eye, he lingers only for a moment longer. With one last nervous scan of the teens within the noisy hall, he hurries on. His third and fourth class periods go on without a hitch, albeit more awkwardly without the presence of a single familiar face. Even as he sits with groups of students, sharing personal fun facts as instructed by the icebreaker assignments, Astral’s guarded mind can’t help but keep his information as simplistic as possible. Anything to avoid questions and further fabrications on himself. Even when presented the opportunity to talk about his interests, Astral’s caution, as well as a familiar pessimistic voice at the back of his mind, has him subconsciously keep his answers brief. For most of the one-hour periods, Astral simply observes and listens. He quietly takes in the other students engaging in friendly chatter, stiffly and self-consciously staring down at his own hands all the while. It isn’t long after he leaves the classroom, rinsing off his hands in the nearest bathroom to head towards his lunch period, that he feels an arm hook around his. A beaming face greets him- Terra: Well well well, we meet again sir! Astral: Phew…you have no idea how glad I am to see you. Terra: Awww buddyyy-! *squeezes his arm eagerly* How’s it been so far~? Did you click with anyone? *wiggles eyebrows* Made any allies? Astral: It’s been okay. No clicking yet, but…you know. *looks off into the hallway, at the backs of numerous students* Hard to really talk about anything…it’s all still pretty nerve-wracking. Terra: *goes quiet, thinking to herself* Hmm… you need someone to connect with…someone to break the tension… *snaps her fingers* I’ve got it. Astral: (??) Got what? Terra: Oh nooothing friendo~ Anyway, c'mon! Let’s not miss the one period we all get to share! -Terra tugs him along, and after two hallways, they come to a much longer hallway leading to the large open doors of the cafeteria. Immediately as they turn the corner, Astral spots Monochrome, Summer, and even Skychaser standing across the way from the side-by-side openings that lead into the girls and boys bathrooms, as well as three unisex single-stall restrooms lining the wall just pass them- Summer: (!) Hey you two! Terra: *grins* Welcome all~ Good to see you guys got my texts. *looks around* Hmm, we’re just missing…ah! *sees Forte’s slow approach* Glad you could make it! Forte: *calmly gazes around at everyone, as unemotive as earlier* Might as well. Summer: *nervously waves* Um, hi! Nice to see you again! It’s been a while! Forte: Mhm. Hi. *turns to Terra, lazily tilting her head* Why here for a meeting? Sky: (!) I was gonna ask the same thing! Isn’t the actual cafeteria a better meeting spot? Monochrome: Well… Terra: *pumps fist* It’s time for our regularly scheduled GROUP BATHROOM BREAK! Sky: ….wha? Terra: *places her hands firmly on her hips* Yes! It’s like I say! 'Friends who take bathroom breaks together, stay together’! -While Sky incredulously looks to everyone else, Astral holds up a hand- Astral: No, she really does say that. Monochrome: *nods wisely* Terra takes bathroom breaks very seriously. No matter where we go. Terra: Of course I do! Aside from the bonding experience- *expression becomes serious* You gotta cleanse your hands and empty your systems before you infect someone or explode. And we don’t want either, okay? Don’t be a heathen. Forte: Ah. Preach. Summer: *smiles at Forte* Okay, guess we’re pairing off. Forte: *shrugs, joining Summer as she walks to the open archway across the hall* Sky: *scratches head* Well, I don’t have to go…and I literally just washed my hands. Astral: Me too, actually… Terra: *eyes unexpectedly light up* Even better! *cough* I mean- okay! That’s fine! Sooo I guess you two can wait out here and have some one-on-one chit-chat! *throws a thumbs up* Y'know, pal it up! You’ll be bros before we even get back! Sky: *snickers, leaning back against the wall* Yes, where else should you make friends other than outside a bathroom- Terra: -EXACTLY what I’m saying, Sky! Glad you understand! Astral: *eyes Terra, noticing Monochrome doing the same* Sure…okay. Terra: Okay! *as Monochrome crosses the hall for one of the single-stall doors, Terra follows backwards, finger-gunning at the boys* Eyyy, don’t gossip too much while we’re gone, kids! -Terra slides into the second single-stall, not even hiding the way she peers through the doorway at them as she slooowly closes the door. Astral and Sky simply exchange glances, and in the bustling hall, Astral searches his mind for something to fill the air between them- Astral: So…you’re an older brother too, huh? Sky: HA, you too? *grins* Your sibling as much of a nag as mine? Astral: *chuckles* No, she’s more like the one who’ll talk your ear off about anything. Sky: Ahh, classic~ *smirks* Summer has plenty of things she likes to gush about too, like the tiny nerd she is. I never get tired of it, somehow. Astral: *smiles* How much older are you than her? Sky: Mmm, two years. Nothing crazy. Astral: Oh wow, so you’re a third year! Sky: *goes quiet, staring towards the wall across the hall* …nah. I’m a first year like you guys. *glimpses at Astral, seeing the confusion on his face. The corner of his mouth lifts before he shrugs* Made a few dumb choices and got held back two years. BUT I should be okay this time. I got my act together. Astral: *winces* I’m…so sorry. I didn’t mean to- Sky: Hey, you didn’t do anything. You were going to find out sooner or later. No big. Astral: …well. *catches Sky’s eye* On the bright side…this means we’ll be spending the next four years together. Right? *offers his best smile, albeit he nervously holds out his hand* I…look forward to it, Sky. Sky: *surprise flickers across his face, genuinely taken aback. It’s then replaced by a mix of warmth and curiosity as he slowly and firmly squeezes Astral’s hand* Yeah…and it’ll be a good four years! I’ll make sure of it~ -While Astral takes a second to appreciate the successful exchange, his eye instinctively slides over to the opposite wall. There, he sees a single cat-like violet eye ever-so-stealthily peeping out from a crack in its stall door. The moment Astral squints at it, he notices the figure on the other side jump and quickly retreat, shutting the door the rest of the way behind her. Turning his head, he finds Skychaser blankly watching as well- Sky: …that was weird, right? Not just me? Astral: Looks like typical Terra-antics to me. *shakes his head, smiling fondly to himself* She’s just…trying to help me bond with people. I kind of guessed that that’s what she was going for here. Sky: And she chose me for that? *laughs disbelievingly* Wow…consider me lucky then! You seem like a cool guy~ Astral: Heh, not really…the jacket’s just a look. Sky: *smirks, looking him over* I mean…even without the jacket. *playfully fistbumps his shoulder* You seem like the wholesome kind of guy I’d want to hang around. Astral: *smiles and rubs the spot* Thank you. That…means a lot. -While Skychaser smiles sincerely back, Astral notices his orange eye flicker past him. In that instant, Sky’s friendly expression falls away. The boy straightens up to his full height instead, taking on a much more intense air as he heatedly stares hard beyond Astral’s shoulder. Turning around to follow the teen’s gaze, despite the bustle in the hallway, Astral’s eyes hone in on a figure that stands out sorely; a towering teen with a copper-colored buzz cut and thick shoulders covered by an open puffy black vest. Leaning against the corner of the adjacent hallway yards back, the boy’s rough, rugged face leers in Astral’s direction with small, menacing green irises. Within the same second Astral turns and notes him, the intimidating visage of the boy rapidly morphs into one of much apprehension and discomfort. Astral doesn’t understand why at first until he looks back at Skychaser and finds that the boy hasn’t torn his sharp gaze away, very much holding a staredown with the other teen. One last glimpse at the large boy gives Astral only a short moment to see the guy nervously and quickly retreat around the corner. The last thing Astral’s catches before he leaves - by sheet luck due to the lighting and his trained eye - is the shine of a diamond charm swinging from the boy’s belt loop. Sky: …hmm. *slowly leans back against the wall, frowning* Astral: *tensely rounds back towards Sky* What was that…? Sky: *meets Astral’s eyes. His expression softens back up, returning to his more relaxed attitude* Nothing serious. Just one of the few kids who like to talk and act big around here. Probably trying to “exert his dominance” with the new year by standing around like a big ol weirdo. As per usual. Astral: …he didn’t seem so big once he saw you. Sky: *smiles smugly* Well…let’s just say I’ve dealt with him before. And we’ll leave it at that~ …by the way, while you shouldn’t take Toby there or anyone like him seriously, you shouldn’t mess with them either. People like him will do anything to make people “respect” them. Astral: I-I see… Sky: *smile becomes more comforting, with a hint of playfulness* But hey, as long as you’re a goody-goody like Terra and co, you shouldn’t have to worry about them. Just avoid anyone who seems kind of show-offy or shady. And if any of them bug you- *grins, playfully tapping Astral’s forehead* They’ll have to take it up with ME, or at least have several strongly worded letters written to them. And believe me, I usually hate writing…and appointments. Astral: *laughs, feeling himself relax again* Okay…I’ll remember that. Summer: *moves across the hall, Forte in tow* Ba-ack~! Sky: Well about time! Forte: Your sister insisted on fixing my hair tie. Summer: I-it was slipping off! *smiles, a joking edge to her tone* Surely you’re a part of Terra’s ponytail squad, too. We members have to look out for each other! Forte: *hums* …if that’s what Terra wants, then sure. Terra: *bounces up to the group with Monochrome following. Throws her arms around Forte from behind* Yep, confirmed! Forte’s officially the fourth member! Forte: *looks back at Terra, unblinkingly* I’m honored. Monochrome: *crosses their arms* We’d have a fifth member if Sky would just- Sky: NOPE. No. *points an accusing finger at Mo, squinting at their amused expression* My hair deserves to be wild and majestic and free like a beautiful horse- Summer: Oh c'mon Sky… *pulls out several hairpins, grinning wide* It’ll be like old times- Sky: NOPE-! *runs, making a beeline for the cafeteria* Nope, nope, nope, nope- -As Terra, Summer, and Monochrome laugh, Astral chuckling alongside them, the remaining four take their time following after Skychaser. Astral takes up the rear, and slowing her speed, Terra joins him- Terra: *bumps her shoulder against his* Looked like you two were getting along~? Astral: *playfully rolls his eyes* Feels like a good start, yeah. *raises an eyebrow* Was that your big plan from before? Terra: It all lined up is all~ *twirls a finger in the air* What’s better to ease the air than some time with Skychaser~? He’s weird and funny and really nice like that. And if you can get along with me, then I knew you’d click with him! *winks* Having a bro will be good for you, Astral! Astral: *scratches head* I’ve never had a real guy-friend before…you might be right. *reaches over to lightly flick her forehead, earning him a squeak* But maybe you shouldn’t peek in on people talking. Terra: Aww…I was just making sure it was going well… Astral: *sighs and smiles* I know. And I really do appreciate your efforts in helping me settle in. Terra: *squeezes his arm tightly, squishing her cheek against it* MMMM, anything for my bestie! *beams* Welcome to the newfound Canterlot Brigade, I guess! -Walking onward into the cafeteria, Astral takes in the sight of Terra’s rag-tag group of friends. Forte, having already face-planted at the group’s table and fallen asleep. Summer, standing behind her brother at his seat and joyfully tugging his hair into a bun while he begrudgingly crosses his arms and legs. And Monochrome, sitting directly in front of Skychaser and hiding a pleased smile behind their folded hands. Astral takes a moment to really breathe in, blocking out the rest of the crowded room. While the nerves remain and his thoughts on precautions and his stiff social skills linger and weigh, he allows himself to simply enjoy the sound of casual banter from those who have quickly become friendly faces. With good company, he appreciates the momentary lack of pressure. And a single thought drifts through his mind as he and Terra join the table- 'This…will be an interesting four years.’ ____________________________________________________ I think teenage Astral is just in this perpetual state of nervous sweating. Poor awkward soft boy. Context for this chapter: In the aftermath of expelling (most) magic from the human universe, as well as the graduation of Princess Twilight’s friends and class from Canterlot High, Twi and friends settled that keeping the existence of the portal a better kept secret from that day onward would be the best course of action in keeping the portal, both dimensions, and all inhabitants safe while preventing a possible second wave of magical corruption. Sunset Shimmer was the only one granted free but careful passage between worlds until Twilight gave the rest of Sunset’s family a chance to experience what was and still is a huge part of Sunset’s life. Only Astral Dusk, Sunset’s son, developed an attachment to the other dimension in the form of his best friend, Terra Rosa. Seeing her son’s deep bond with Terra and understanding the opportunity in having her son attend her old high school, Sunset gains Twilight’s permission in having Astral attend Canterlot High. Not only is it a way for him to spend time with Terra, attending school together and living in her household for the next four years (visiting Equestria every other weekend and keeping in touch with his mother via SciTwi and her magic journal). Sunset also believes the experience can help her son learn to find his footing with others his age and develop more relationships. It helped her, after all. And thus behold, Mirrorverse!Monochrome, Skychaser, and Summer Rush, who are each new characters in their own right. In the future they will all have their own ref image and bio! Aaaand….with this chapter, the rest of Astral’s arc will be on hold. Astral has always been a unique case and was never going to have his full past arc shown all at once, but as I was working, I found myself majorly rewriting and better developing his story ideas. SO, until I pull together these new ideas to better write the chapters I had in mind for the showing, we’ll be pausing here! Though that doesn’t mean I’m done with Astral, or done posting things for certain characters in said arc…I have a few more things to share~

#eqg #Equestria Girls #MLP #astral dusk #terra rosa #mirrorverse #destinyverse #story

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mariellewritesalot · 5 years

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Notes on the Romantic Narrative

As an homage to my favorite film of all-time “Silver Linings Playbook” finally being on Netflix, and a coping mechanism to everything I’ve been feeling as of late: I am writing to you about some musings I’ve been making and breaking for the past few months. About love, or lack thereof, in my life.

First, to give you an image of how I pay attention to detail in life and movies, I will start with a few reasons why I love this gem despite the huge changes they made on screen vis-à-vis the novel: 1) It portrayed mental illnesses in a way that didn’t feel pushy or overly-romanticized: healing is not linear, 2) Pat’s character development throughout the film was the epitome of his motto (and mine), “Excelsior”, 3) I love how the story sort of revolved around the Eagles and football to anchor the heaviness of the entire plot line, 4) The casting!!! I mean, wow, and 5) It makes you believe in silver linings, even in the safest sense of the idea, not too grand and definitely not perfect. Safe. Who could forget that scene where Pat runs after Tiffany with his letter? The relief we all felt knowing that her hard work and feelings were not for naught? If you haven’t seen it, I hope you have the time to. It’s a moving film, honestly.

Anyway, I digress. I am going to go personal in this bit and I might not like it, too. I am stating the obvious when I say that I am a hopeless romantic and that I tend to look at life in rose-colored glasses. Some probable reasons are because my parents have the kind of love story that really makes you believe in fate and second chances, plus the fact that I grew up with romantic films, songs, and books. I was sold to the fairy tale idea of happily ever afters despite the proof that it doesn’t apply to everyone in real life. I wanted my own story to tell. After all, I am a writer. I live for the things worth telling.

Nowadays, I also spend a lot of my time online where my timeline is bombarded with couples or romantic gestures, as if the algorithm is working against the realist in me. I can’t say I hate it, because one thing I get from this mindset is the tendency to highlight the good things, both in people or situations. The “too kind for my own good” complex. The only downside is that I may get disappointed more times than I should. It’s a tricky predicament if you think about it in my context: I grew up with mostly men in the house, in my own bubble, going through life thinking that somebody is going to sweep me off my feet, backed up by High School Musical films and the media pushing love teams down our throats...but then it hits me in real life as I grow older: movie moments do happen in real life, but they aren’t as common as they make it out to be, they’re the exception to the rule. They are as rare as they come.

Some of us aren’t as lucky.

In reality, when the hurt runs too deep, it feels almost impossible to rise above it. The hopeless romantic dies out and is replaced by a semi-angry realist, tired of how the world consistently proves that it moves in circles. They become someone who occasionally relapses into that romanticized haze every once in a while because it gets lonely. When you’ve fallen in love a few times in life, it’s hard not to expect yourself to fall into a trap, any moment now. The withdrawals grow stronger just when you’re starting to get the hang of things. It’s an exhausting ordeal, if you ask me, turning numb but knowing that you can’t shake off the romantic within when it resurfaces in the most inappropriate of moments.

I used to think that I’d be one of the lucky ones who meet the love of their life early on; someone who’s capable of being in a long-term relationship in college or maybe even after...and I still think I am, but maybe I haven’t met him yet. Maybe I have, but the timing is off or we just don’t know it until a little further down the road. Now I’ve been single for too long, and there is nothing wrong with it, just the fact that the trauma I went through has really soiled my chances of healing fast; more from the events than the actual person who did the hurting. Being here though, I am able to see how I am in a generation where #hugot culture is the norm, relationships are only as good as they are on social media, and 80% of young people are desperate to find love or at least a semblance of it. It’s nauseating, accidentally giving into the “sana all” culture and thinking I am incomplete if I don’t have someone who’s technically obligated to care for me, vice versa. I am not a fan of it, but it’s not exactly easy to exclude myself from a narrative I have been in for years. I wish it didn’t feel so off.

Because...hey, there are pros to being single. For starters: I am young. I don’t have to worry about it yet at least for the next ten years or so. I am not supposed to have the same timeline as other people. I can go to bed without worrying about somebody else. I don’t have to ask for anyone’s approval. I have more time for the things I love doing. I am not being emotionally abused or taken for granted or cheated on, which were common themes in my past relationships. It’s a treat, until I am once again hooked by the media I consume and made to think that there’s more to life than being alone.

Maybe it’s the fact that I spent half of this year trying to get over the one I thought was the love of my life, or how I’m spending the other half denying to myself that I may be having feelings for a person and consciously running away from them through various coping mechanisms I never thought I’d use. Love is a gray area right now because I don’t see myself being in a relationship anytime soon, but if I ever do, I’d want something serious. I love meeting new people right now, but at the same time, my comfort zone feels good. I find that it helps tone down my anxiety when I am in control. I’m proud of myself for choosing to navigate through life by my own right now, turning down people who want to become a part of it for my sake and theirs. I just have a lot on my plate. Although I do believe that I’ll never be ready. No one ever is, but I want to put my faith in timing. I just have to learn the ropes here first. I hate that everyone around me is rushing because I feel like I’m that person being squeezed into the middle of the crowd in a mosh pit. I am choosing to make sure I am a better person than I was first before I dive into it, head first.

So yeah. Lloyd Dobler is not going to blast In Your Eyes by Pete Gabriel on a boombox outside my bedroom window (though I’d love Closing Time by Semisonic more). Dylan Harper is not going to organize a flash mob to tell me he made a mistake. Patrick Verona is not going to hack into the school speakers and sing to me at the football field. Troy Bolton is not going to show up outside my window to apologize, armed with Margherita pizza and chocolate covered strawberries. Ted is not going to steal a blue french horn for me. Johnny Castle is not going to dance with me in front of everybody to prove our love. Chuck Bass is not going to buy me a ring and carry it around even when we aren’t together anymore, hoping for the chance to get me back. Augustus Waters is not going to show up with orange tulips and a trip to Amsterdam. Pat Soltano is not going to run after me with a love letter he wrote a week ago...and I’m okay with it. I don’t want to buy into the notion that I need saving, or that I can be swayed by gestures that can so easily be just a move to win me over with no follow-through. I don’t want to be put on a pedestal, anyway. Also...sometimes, it’s in the little things. We fall in love with the way people remember something we said to them months ago, the way they show up after a long day, and the way even the tiniest gestures feel so big it fills up everything else.

I feel like one day I’ll be given the love I deserve and I don’t have to yearn for movie scenes like the art geek I am. You see, what makes love stories unique is the fact that it happens when you least expect it. Grand romantic gestures are welcome, but they aren’t really the basis of how deep love could be. I could only hope to be with someone who speaks my love language or at least tries to understand it. Until then...I’ll keep relearning everything until I make sense of what I truly want out of love and its intricate mess of a web.

I’ll love; even without pretense, without hope or agenda, without expecting the universe to give me back everything like it owes me.

#daily life blog posts #romance #romantic movies #silver linings playbook #random thoughts #marielle fatima #mariellewritesalot #october 2019

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evenheroesbleedastonyfanfic · 6 years

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Chapter 1 “Remembrance Day”

It’s time. He doesn’t want to but he knows he has to get up. He could hear the alarm clock blaring across the room. Silently he cursed to himself. There’s really no need for the alarm. He doesn’t sleep deep enough to need one but he keeps it anyway.

It was Steve’s alarm.

He tried, a thousand times, to get rid of the damned thing. But he couldn’t even find the courage to change the time on it so it didn’t go off at such an ungodly hour. God, why did he always get up so early, he thought. Every time he tries his heart contracts and he’s left shaking and drenched in sweat. So he just lives with it—even though it’s a painful reminder that Steve would never wake up early to watch the sunrise again.

Somehow he managed to get out of bed and get ready. It’s Remembrance Day, a day dedicated to the fallen heroes of the war against Thanos. It’s also the day Steve died. A day he would rather forget. A day he can never forget. A day no one would ever let him forget. Because as the world celebrates the bravery and sacrifice of Captain America, Iron man should always bear witness. The husband. The widower. The one he saved the world for and gave up his life.

To Tony Stark, it was pure torture.

He’d rather be lying down dead beside his husband. But Steve made sure he lived. That fucking bastard,” he muttered as he made his way to the helipad where the Quinjet is waiting to take him to Washington. There, he and the remaining Avengers are going to be honored for the 7th year in a row. Dead for 7 years and Steve still drives him insane. He’d give everything to have him back.

The flight was only less than an hour but he could already feel his head throbbing. He’ll definitely be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Good, he thought. Maybe then they’ll let him skip the ceremonies. As soon as the thought came to him he knew it was never going to happen. The world needed a symbol for their superficial annual grieving. Why they can’t understand that he is still living with the grief is beyond him. All he wants is to be left alone. He doesn’t need to be reminded of how selfless Steve was—he sees the proof in the mirror every day.

He found Rhodey in the standby room, already finished with his coffee.

“No Peter and Harley again?” Rhodey asked as soon as he saw Tony by himself. Tony shrugged. He’s used to going alone to this charade now. Peter refused and begged Tony not to force him to attend the ceremonies from the beginning. I can’t do it Dad! I can’t let him go! Meanwhile, Harley stopped coming after the 3rd year. If Peter doesn’t have to go, then I don’t want to go. He wanted to get mad at his children, but he knew how hard it was for them. Things weren’t exactly peachy between Peter and Steve when Steve died. Steve was still trying to make amends for leaving him for Bucky. Peter, who was old enough to understand what his Pops had done, couldn’t forgive him.

“Isn’t this supposed to start at 8? Where is everybody?” he asked, changing the subject. Before Rhodey could reply the door opened and in came Nat and Sam.

“Bruce isn’t coming,” Nat spat. “And so is Thor. It’s just the four of us today. I can’t believe those shitheads, missing something this important!”

Tony and Rhodey exchanged curious looks. Natasha is in one of her moods—something they’ve seen getting more frequent over the years. She used to be one of the hardest people to read but ever since she lost Steve, the person she trusted the most, she had become temperamental and careless. Sam subtly signaled them not to engage with her. And they didn’t. Tony had no desire to further agitate his already massive headache. Hesilently wondered how Sam could tolerate her temper tantrums. Maybe the rumours about them being a couple now are true. Whatever. It wasn’t really not his concern. As long as Sam is there to make sure Natasha doesn’t go off the edge he could care less about their status. He just wants to get this event over with so he could go home and sleep.

These days nothing hardly ever happens in the world. Yes, they still had the occasional nuisance. But nothing major enough to require the services of the Avengers. They’ve become nothing but figureheads. Perhaps the hullabaloo with Thanos wore out would be bad guys. He couldn’t decide if it was a bad thing. Yes, they had peace. But all he wanted was peace of mind. And since he couldn’t really get that he craved distraction—which is so hard to come by these days.

Tony silently thanked the heavens when one of the organizers finally fetched them. The presidents were already onstage. It was show time.

Skies were blue. There was a gentle breeze. Everything looked and felt perfect.

Fuck me. It was all Tony could think.

Fuck me. Fuck you. This is all your fault you selfish sonafabitch.

They were playing a tribute video for Captain America. The background music was deep and sweeping and full of drama. It was supposed to bring tears to everyone’s eyes. He didn’t need an audiovisual cue. All he needed to do was think of his husband’s smiling face, the one he will never see again, and he is lost. Lost in an ocean. Adrift and drowning at the same time.

His memories took him to the night he first met Steve in person.

He grew up in the shadow of the super soldier. Steve Rogers. Captain America. All his father could talk about while he was growing up was this man who was the very definition of hero. A man who was so selfless he died to save literally the whole world. To Tony he was like the perfect older brother whose perfectly timed death cemented his place on a pedestal. An older brother he was striving to be, while secretly hating on because he could never be him. He resented him, even though he was nothing but a memory. So when he found out from Fury that Captain America had just been recovered and revived, he just had to see him. He wanted to know if his resentment was misguided. He never imagined that seeing Steve for the first time would take his breath away. He was the most beautiful human being he had ever seen.

He was still lost in that memory when the first explosion went off.

“Get the presidents out of here!!!” he heard Rhodey scream. It took him a couple of seconds to register what was going on around them. Another explosion was heard, followed by rapid gun shots.

“Tony! TONY! Get your head out of your ass! We’re under attack!” Natasha was already running towards the end of the street where the explosion came from. Sam was already airborne, ahead of the swat team assigned to this event. It was pandemonium everywhere.

He stood frozen for a second.

Shit.

And then his muscle memory activated.

“Friday, get me my suit,” he spoke to his AI. Nowadays he doesn’t wear the automated suit that lets him gear up in seconds. It’s always just nearby though, in this case, in the Quinjet.

“Already on its way, boss,” his AI replied. A minute later he felt the familiar weight of metal around his skin. It has been so long since he was dressed this way. It almost feels uncomfortable.

“Look mom! It’s Ironman! He’s back!” he heard a kid scream while he was being dragged away by his mother to safety. The word seemed so foreign.

“Tony? Are you suited?” he heard Rhodey through his coms.

“Yeah. Where are you?”

“I’m escorting the presidents. Sam and Nat are headed east.”

“Do you have visuals on the bomber?”

“Bombers. And they’re armed to the teeth—“

Another explosion shakes them. This time, near the Lincoln Memorial.

”Fuck!” Nat’s curse rang in his ear and another memory ate at him.

Language. The first few years of Captain America’s 2nd life was a source of fond memories. His propriety and naivety gave them all quite a few laughs. But he was also a great leader.

“I’m on my way to the 2nd location,” he said. He flew towards the Lincoln Memorial, suddenly alert and focused.

“Tony, please be careful,” said Rhodey.

“Of course,” he replied. He wanted to be offended but knew his friend only meant well. He knew Rhodey thinks he’s emotionally compromised.

Nothing could have prepared him for the devastation he found. He smelled and heard it before he saw it. Bodies everywhere. Death. Destruction. The screams of people in pain or running away were piercing. He surveyed the area, looking for the bomber, but all he saw were more bodies, dead and alive. It never used to derail him whenever they were in battle. Sure, he grieved after every fight but during the fight, all he focused on was the enemy.

He struggled to keep alert.

“Tony, do you have visuals on the perps?”

“No, not yet—“

“HELP! SOMEONE HELP US!”

A voice steals his attention.

No. It can’t be.

“Please! I need help!”

He followed the voice, his heart beating wildly in his chest.

“Please, someone, anyone! Help us!”

There’s ringing in his ears—but the voice was crystal clear. He knew that voice.

He searched frantically. He didn’t care that the bomber had been forgotten suddenly. All he cared about was that voice. He cannot be mistaken.

Steve.

It was Steve’s voice.

“Help!”

“Tony, what’s going on?” he heard Rhodey. But he dared not reply, afraid that speaking would break it—whatever spell it was that was letting him hear his dead husband’s voice so clearly.

“Tony?!”

He turned off his coms.

Where are you? Oh God, please let me find him—

And he did.

#stony #stony fic #stonyfic #stony fanfiction #captain america #ironman #iron man #spiderman #avengers #black widow #falcon #steve rogers #tony stark #peter parker #natasha romanoff #sam wilson #rhodey #tragedy #drama

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someobscurereference · 7 years

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hey so i love your fe stuff! its soo good! but ive noticed that most of it is either gen or takes place after the relationships have gotten together (which is fine, i love that) but it did make me curious if youd be willing to share some of your headcanons (for odin/niles/leo, camilla/beruka/selena, and xander/laslow) for how they got together/developed feelings for one another? im very curious about your take on it bc i love your characterization! thank u so much for writing such beautiful fics

Aww, thank you, anon!! FE13/14 isn’t as popular as it probably once was and I definitely joined the writing fic for it part of the fandom pretty late, so I’m so pleased to hear that you enjoy my fics! Thank you!!

Secondly, anon….This is gonna be mega long and I hope you’re prepared for that, lmao (Also if you had any other questions or anything, don’t be afraid to send another ask!)

I don’t know if I have any “set in stone” headcanons for how any of these three pairs get together because I’m a multishipper who loves AUs, but if we’re talking about canon FE14 universe, I definitely have some thoughts as to how that’s going to go.

I’m gonna blabble a lot now

Odin/Niles/Leo

I actually feel like Odin would have the easiest time accepting dating people anyone, even if they’re a prince or a coworker or two people at once or he feels he has to travel to another dimension in a few years.

Like, he’s very? Pragmatic? Not necessarily 24/7 (because he loves to tell tales and exaggerate and roleplay) but Big Decisions. Like in Hidden Truths DLC, when Laslow and Selena are questioning where they should go when it’s time to leave Nohr–their home dimension with their family’s graves or to return to the world where their parents are still alive–iirc, Odin is the first one to say “We can worry about this later, we just have to deal with this now.” It’s not that he doesn’t care as much, because he super does, but I think he like? Compartmentalizes a little more? In the FE13 Future Past DLC, when he and Inigo are stuck on one side of the bridge and Brady and Yarne are on the other, Owain talks through what’s going to happen if they try to cross the bridge until he gets to the conclusion, “If you go and I stay behind, the most people in this scenario live and we still succeed, even if that means my death.” When Inigo cuts the brige with both of them on one side, Owain says, “We don’t both have to die!” Now part of this is Owain/Odin’s dramatic personality and the (probably unhealthy) self-sacrificing tendencies he almost certainly had during his years before jumping through time and even some time after, even Inigo acknowledges that Owain’s plan was probably the best way to get the gemstone to Ylisse (though not the best plan for Owain’s life.) He’s also the one who adjusts most to living in Nohr, by which I mean his homesickness and memories of Ylisse seem to weigh on him the least. While he admits to Selena in their Supports that he also is unable to sleep at night from his memories, Selena and Laslow’s Supports with him are more about their problems with missing home and he has become a kind of shoulder to lean on between the three of them.

Anyway all of this is basically evidence to say that Odin is pretty reasonable and levelheaded when not indulging in his imagination (which was almost definitely a coping mechanism of some kind in his younger years, though it may have become a bit more of an innocent hobby by the time he’s in Nohr… though I don’t want this to get dark, OTL)

ANYWAY! I think Odin is has the easiest time adjusting between all three of the Time Travel Trio, but I don’t know if he’s necessarily the one to make the first move in anything? If anything, it would have to be all three make a move at the same time (through some circumstance) or Niles/Leo get together first (even though Niles thinks his purpose in life is to “serve” Leo until he dies via their Supports and Leo probably wouldn’t want to put anyone in a weird position considering his status). I’ve written past stuff where Odin gets confident and does something bold like sit in Laslow’s lap and kiss him while Laslow bemoans never having a first kiss, and while I think Odin could catch onto moves being made on him and be down for it, I don’t think he’d be as likely to do something as bold as that for Niles/Leo like he would for someone he’s known years and years, like Laslow or Selena.

The thing about Niles is that… Idk, I don’t think he views himself as garbage? (Unless there’s a support I don’t remember.) But he definitely thinks of himself as “lower” than Leo, who he views as having saved his life and literally is the start to “good” memories in Nile’s mind. I’m not sure he’d ever make a move on Leo and compromise that relationship he values so highly unless it was something he felt Leo needed or something out of his control. (Like doing something to save Leo’s life and Leo is like “Hey do you have Feelings for me” and Niles, broken out in a cold sweat, hands shaking, answers “I mean Yes, but it doesn’t have to be weird…. unless u want that.”

For Leo, I don’t think he really thinks about love unless it’s right there in his face. Either because he’s thinking about marriage for political reasons/someone else is getting married or because Niles/Odin is hanging around a lot and he’s like “What is this Feeling, it’s highly inconvenient but I cannot deny it exists”. (Also another thing about him is that he’s probably a little uncomfortable with Nile’s… Pedestal, I guess? For him. Like, he knows Niles values him a lot and vice versa but when Niles is like “You’re the reason my life is good and I will serve you until I Die For You,” Leo is like “I don’t know what to say but I guess ‘Thank you’ is the right response.” So he probably wouldn’t want to take advantage of Nile’s feelings either.)

(The thing about all the Royal Nohrian Sibs is that they are under the watchful eye of Garon for most of their life, and that’s a huge influence on what they are or aren’t willing to do in terms of romance until the Big Slime is no longer an issue for them. So that’s a major factor as well.)

I think Niles and Odin make a great team, but Niles is initially very suspicious when Odin/Selena/Laslow show up out of the blue and even when he trusts Odin later on, he does use that suspicion as a little jab on Odin’s origins in their C-Support when they’re having an annoyed argument. They both apologize to each other later with Odin conceding that Niles was right and his actions weren’t out of line, and while Nile’s is like, “Aw, I shouldn’t have done that, Lord Leo trusts you and that’s enough for me,” the secretiveness of Odin’s past is like. An undercurrent in their relationship on both their parts for a long time. (While meanwhile Leo does not give a single fuck what you did or who you were before you met him so long as he knows what kind of person you are now.)

So with all this I can absolutely see Niles and Leo getting together and Odin being supportive from the sidelines for a Long Time as Niles/Leo either pine a little secretly (maybe separately) or they don’t really realize their own feelings for Odin or the idea all three of them could be a thing until later. (Bc Odin is not gonna intrude on something he feels he shouldn’t and when it’s a better idea not to.) (However, if that opportunity appears and everything is Chill, Odin is absolutely Hell Yeah, down for it.)

(This didn’t really come up anywhere before but? Leo and Odin’s supports?? Are so Much????? Like, Leo doesn’t want to send Odin out on any more “adventures” he used to because according to Leo: “uh that was to be a dick to you and I literally Cannot imagine living without you now because you’re so Valuable to me, so you can’t go on any Mega Dangerous missions, sorry.” He says he wont’ keep Odin from being his own person and leaving Nohr but that he honestly wishes Odin would stay and if he does leave, all the victories afterwards will be a little “bittersweet” without Odin there. Also if Odin does leave, Leo asks that he use his title as Leo’s retainer still so there will always be that “connection” between them.

Like??? Holy shit??

It was here that Leo struck me as the type of person to want Niles and Odin by his side literally Forever in whatever form that relationship may be, even if nothing romantic ever comes from it.)

Camilla/Beruka/Selena

My girl!! Selena!!! I love her!!!! I’ve probably written the least about Selena (I have like one unfinished Selena/Laslow/Odin fic on my computer and that’s probably it besides maybe a tiny Selena/Noire thing I wrote 2 sentences of and never finished either) but!! I think about her a lot and I love my girl!!

I rambled a lot with Odin/Niles/Leo so to cut to the chase here a bit more, Camilla/Beruka/Selena probably comes from Selena’s need to be validated and prove that she’s the Best. Camilla always reassures Selena that she’s “darling, powerful, and obedient,” which are qualities Camilla values a lot in a retainer. I think Camilla, for all her ruthlessness, also has a lot of love in her heart and so she is a little smitten with Selena (and Beruka) from the start because of these qualities they share. Camilla gets melancholy when she thinks about how Selena might leave her one day and wants Selena to know she is Camilla’s. I don’t think Camilla would ever do or say anything about her feelings while under the watchful eye of Garon because she’s not stupid and she knows what will happen if she tries to get too close to anyone while he’s within reach, but she’s not lying. When she says she loves Selena and Beruka, she really does mean it, even if her meaning gets lost in the context of all the other times she says she loves Corrin and Elise and her other siblings and such.

(As a side note, Camilla and Selena’s C-Support is so fucking funny to me because Selena is like “hey I’m your favorite, right?” and Camilla is straight up like “I would rather murder you than you leave” and Selena’s like “that’s not….what I wanted you to say…”. Camilla is so fucking Extra??? I love it. Though she’s honestly very scary too, so that element of humor is one I’m taking with grain of salt because Camilla is also truthful in her violence. Their B-Support is similar.)

This same drive to be the Best is what causes Selena and Beruka to butt heads in their C-Support, but they show they understand each other well by calling out each other’s complexities and flaws while arguing. Later, they show they care about each other by apologizing in the B-Support, and it’s shown for all her emotionless attitude, Selena can get Beruka to smile the tiniest bit while supporting her and telling Beruka that she should do the things she loves, even if that thing is work, and that Selena is her friend. (Beruka’s questioning of “Should I really bury myself in my work?” also shows that she took Selena’s earlier words of “What even makes you You if all you do is your work/only do things for money?”. So Selena’s views do impact Beruka.)

I’m rereading their A support right now and?? It’s so sweet? Selena wants to get matching jewelry for all three of them as a symbol of their connection (and for when Selena leaves) and Beruka accepts this, despite Selena requesting she not get something that doubles as a weapon, and also says she wouldn’t wear the matching jewelry if Selena were gone because it would be “lonely” and she’d only wear it if Selena were there so she wouldn’t lose it. Like? They value each other a lot. Beruka indulges Selena in this and by extension says she’s “enjoying” herself as well–something Beruka rarely does at all.

Beruka is a little more hesitant around Camilla, but that’s likely a response to Camilla being her employer and Beruka placing so much value in her work. It’s a complicated situation for someone who isn’t as casual as Selena or Odin are with their Lord/Lady. Beruka admits she would betray Camilla if offered something better from another employer, but that possibility is so unlikely because she doesn’t think she could find anyone she trusts as much as Camilla. For an assassin, trust is a big deal. Camilla is a huge part of Beruka’s heart even if Beruka doesn’t recognize it the same way someone else might. Camilla, on her part, is pleased but orders Beruka not to throw herself away in the process because Beruka means a lot to her. Their relationship is a bit different than Camilla and Selena’s or Selena and Beruka’s because of their unique dynamic and how seriously Beruka takes herself. Camilla is somewhat less affectionate when alone with Beruka, most likely because it makes Beruka uncomfortable. The affection is still there; Beruka just doesn’t yearn for it as much and so Camilla backs off a bit. Beruka is very truthful about the realities of life–both Beruka’s job and how she’ll probably stick with Camilla forever, even if she doesn’t explicitly say so. They’re good.

I’m getting off track again, sorry. I love character analysis. ANYWAY!

Camilla/Selena/Beruka would probably get together all at the same time because Camilla wouldn’t want anyone to misunderstand or feel left out (even if Beruka would insist she didn’t feel anything about it, she probably would.) Selena would probably push about being the Best Retainer again and Camilla would say something like, “Oh, but I love you both equally” and pull Beruka and Selena close. Selena would probably grumble something like “but do you really?” or “but who do you love more?” or something, letting a little jealousy take hold. Camilla probably wouldn’t stand for this, both on the basis that she loves them equally and that this has been probably going on for years.

To be honest, I could see them kind of… falling into it. Like Camilla kissing Selena’s forehead or cheek, leaving a big lipstick mark behind and while Selena sputters, face red and brain reeling, Camilla does the same thing to Beruka.

“Wha–What’s that supposed to mean?” Selena asks, eyes rolling in her head and steam coming from her ears.

“I told you,” Camilla says simply. “You are both my precious, darling retainers.”

Beruka, eyes closed in thought: “Hm.”

And before anybody can do anything else, Camilla’s like, “okay, chop-chop, we have things to do, people to kill” and they just go about doing their daily jobs and fighting battles. And anytime Selena or even Beruka tries to question it, Camilla’s like, “I told you, I love you both” and kisses their cheek again. Eventually maybe Beruka and Selena talk a little among themselves, but honestly I really see them falling into it after that. Kissing their foreheads every time they separate (never the mouth in the beginning, unless Selena or Beruka initiate because this isn’t supposed to be a pressured thing). Selena and Beruka heading off to their own rooms at night and Camilla telling them they can stay with her if they want. Selena’s a bit rowdy, but I think she’d be content with starting off like this just because it’s Camilla. (She might confront someone if anyone else tried to pull this move.)

(I take most C-A Supports for all party members as having really happened in-game eventually, so this might even be after Beruka’s support with Odin where he tries to help her understand her own emotions through mimicking facial expressions and looking within herself and stuff via lying about magic spells. So Beruka might discover a bit more about herself here too, like “Hmm, is this what love feels like? It must be.” Even though she’d probably been feeling it for a while and not recognizing it.)

Xander/Laslow

The thing about Xander/Laslow is that while Camilla and Leo have varying levels of more freedom between the two of them, Xander is The Crown Prince. He’s the one to take the throne. He has do what’s best for the people, and he’s always going to put Nohr before himself. On the flipside, Laslow is a flirt but he knows how fickle life can be and often laments the fleeting connections between people as they only have a short time in this world (he gets super melancholy in some of his supports; he hides his sadness a lot but it’s there), and I don’t think he’d want to jeopardize his relationship with Xander or put him in a bad position either. Plus, he’s super-duper homesick, so he wouldn’t want to start anything he felt he couldn’t finish either.

I really think there’d have to be a big catalyst for their relationship to begin. One of two things probably has to happen.

1. Something really relieves Xander of his pressures as King and makes him relaxed enough to maybe request a kiss or courtship from Laslow one day, if/when Laslow ever feels he wants it, no pressure (though I don’t know what this event would be; Xander feels LOT of responsibility. Duty chains him more than anything. Even if he feels mentally exhausted by everything and restraining his feelings on top of that, he’s always going to be stuck unless something forces him to move or slackens that grip.) (Laslow, in turn, is also chained by what he feels is his obligation and memories to return to Ylisse some day, so he’s stuck a bit too.)

2. Like in Home (Is Where The Heart Is) (spoilers), Xander realizes if he doesn’t do something, he will lose Laslow forever In This Moment, Right Now and (as this is a huge fear) Goes For It via Kiss of Life or pouring his feelings out. (I really think Xander is the type of person to make huge declarations of devotion and love while Laslow melts into a huge blushing puddle in the corner while crying from being overwhelmed.)

They would mutually pine. A Lot.

I’ve written a lot less for them but I’ve written so much already and I think at least one of these two events are really the needed qualifications for a Xander/Laslow relationship to happen in canon universe. (There are other AUs on ao3 that are super good and probably do a better job of imagination than I will here, so :p)

All three relationships probably have an undercurrent of Devotion For My Lord/Lady because they are all retainers/royals first and foremost and jobs come first, but that’s an interesting dynamic to work around in itself.

Even if were only friendship between them all, I really like how Odin/Selena/Laslow are so willing to say, “MY Lord/Lady is the best one!” (I’m mostly thinking of the Beach DLC where everyone fought for that beach trip, whether or not their Lord/Lady wanted it.) They love the Royal Nohrians so much, no matter the context.

(RIP Me, this is super long and I just spent the last 2 hours writing it. If there was anything you wanted me to expand on, let me know! I’m a blabber mouth.)

#fe14 #my text #death mention #odin/niles/leo #camilla/beruka/selena #xanlow #long post #you can probably spot who i love the most throughout this wall of text #but i love them all so much #there are lots of fics i'll never write but i think about fe so much

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tayegi · 7 years

Note

This second chapter made me feel so much of everything, and I admire the OC for being so mature and put her anger aside. I feel sort of ashamed that it's not something I'd do hehe(seems like I need to grow more) I've never felt this way before but somehow your amazing writing makes me feel everything the OC feels! So thank your very much for sparing time to write all of this amazing stuff, even tho you're really busy. Really, thank you. I love you. ♥

Anonymous said:New rules isn't even about the boys for me anymore it's about this lowkey toxic friendship even if they've been friends for years that's the problem. OC couldn't talk to Mijoo about how she really felt not saying she should've told Mijoo to stay away from Jimin but let her know that it really hurt her feelings and Mijoo clearly didn't have a problem putting a boy over friendship. Even if it started with something small like this it could be the downfall to their friendship.

Anonymous said:I just wouldn't be able to trust Mijoo and that kinda ruins the whole friendship right then and there. It's I would think if she was so quick to ruin something for me for her over a guy what else will she do to put herself before me. I know friendships are important most of the time and the reader and Jimin were never together but I just wouldn't be able to associate with her. This is only what the reader is finding out now what else could Mijoo be hiding and I know it might not be that deep pt1

mirajoey said:Fml. I just hate how sweet demure pretty girls who are actual snake. And people keep misunderstanding 'ice queen but true' type of girls. Why do women need to be attractive (pretty) but superficial af to please men? My ex-crush is in relationship with my bestfriend tho😂 she and my other girl keep mocking me for being the only single ass in the group. Idk if they are intentional or not. I'm about to say fuck off bitch whenever they do that. But i'm a softie for friends. So yeah, am i weak?

Anonymous said:i feel like all this hate towards mijoo and the desire to hurt her is exactly how the oc initially reacted, and everyone who had sent in asks about physically hurting her is an instantaneous reaction, but will not actually do so. its kind of like being so angry during an argument with someone that you say things you dont mean. don't take it at heart. im one of the anons who sent in something about hurting her, and i would not in any way physically harm a person. much less a best friend.

Anonymous said:NR 2, Great writing as always. But I wouldnt have been as forgiving, maybe after a day or 2 we could talk things through with her after that. I get why some friendships crumble because of that. Its not because of the guy but because of the betrayal. It would hurt so much more from a friend you trust and have been open with all this. It just means they didnt choose to trust you with the truth and she didnt even admit it after all this time.

Anonymous said:wow that Mijoo... I have two thoughts: 1. "I hate snakeu" and 2. Haven't she heard the phrase, fries before guys? btw I would cut all connections with a "friend" like that. But you are wonderful Lu and never fail to amaze us♡ Thank you for sharing such quality contents so often~ Have a nice day!

Anonymous said:oH MY GOD! New rules 2 had me screeching. Bruh you make me so sad but i love it. Im in emotional turmoil for OC. Im. I just dont know man. Her friends are such asses.

Anonymous said:Ahh new rules hit me so hard, i actually cried! I relate so much to the oc and my own best friend of over 10 years pulled that shit on me and I was so, so hurt that I didn't even cared about the guy anymore but her betrayal really hit me....ahhh anyway that's such a emotional ride!!!! I love your writing 💕

Anonymous said:new rules makes me really sad of how friendships are always regarded as smth less than relationships. and the worst part is people around me would literally question me abt why im so against relationships when im not? i just feel like relationships and friendships are different but equally important.. it's so upsetting to know that friends that you treasure dont treasure you in the same way just because u r not their partner.

Anonymous said:Forgive me if I'm reading way too much into this, but I think the reason Mijo's betrayal brought so many strong emotions in a lot of readers is because most women "dread" something like that happening.. No one wants the "girls hate other girls/pick guys over friendships" stereotype to be true because it IS an awful stereotype, so when it happens (cause some people are awful and some of those people are girls) it's really heartbreaking.. 1/?

Anonymous said:the act alone is terrible but add to it that this proved the stereotype for some people and it can really sting!!I think that's the reason why "Mean Girls" is so popular! It satirizes that feeling and makes it funny/tolerable! The OC is acting in a mature way but given that she's a feminist it can also be that she doesn't want to prove that stereotype and wants to act above it! 2/?

Anonymous said:It's very understandable BUT no one would expect boys/men to be friends after something like that because it WAS hurtful and selfish and awful and Mijoo shouldn't get a pass just because she's a girl and OC wants to prove a point! Remove jimin from the equation and add a job promotion with Mijoo being sneaky and getting it instead of OC for reasons SHE instigated and it should be clear why OC needs to be angry! 3/4

Anonymous said:They should at least argue about it with a line in the sand drawn if it happens again! *not saying you should do that of course, the story is a stroy and should have this kind of layers/complex feelings, I'm talking in a real life scenario I guess* sorry to dump all this on you but it brought so many feelings and I had to write them down!! What do you think? A stretch? 4/4

Anonymous said:There would have been at minimum a month of radio silence from me if I were OC and one of my girl friends pulled a stunt like M.

Anonymous said:To be honest, I feel like maybe how the MC handled Mijoo maybe wasn't the mature thing to do? I guess in the past I always felt like being mature was keeping friends no matter what they pulled, but lately I feel like cutting off toxic friends actually is sometimes the best way to handle things? Like not causing a scene, or anything. It's just that I've come to value trust and respect in my relationships, and after part two I feel like I personally cannot trust or respect her. Just some thoughts!

Anonymous said:how is the OC so patient and... nice ?!!1!1!1 if i were her i’d be a salty ass bitch at mijoo like heck you just stole my crush away from me just because YOU like him. kdndksjsoana i feel aNgEr

Anonymous said:i hope karma fucks mijoo in the ass. i hate everything and i hope jungkook gets his ass whooped too so he can actually act like a human being for once. thanks for writing new rules

Anonymous said:As much as the OC is remarkable for her self sacrifice I feel Jimin had the right to know what happened and Mijoo really needs to know that what she did was not okay. Sure OC didn’t do the wrong thing by throwing a tantrum and ruining Mijoo’s life but I just felt like honest communication is necessary. This brings me to the point that I like how you write realistic stories because in life decisions aren’t so black and white.

Anonymous said:Yes I totally get you Lu. And in all honesty, I wouldn't have forgiven her. I wouldn't have caused that much or big of a scene, but I would have definitely ended my 'friendship' right then and there. It irritated me though that OC even went up to her and touched her asdsfhk. I would have went to sleep. I once had a friend who did the same shit twice. She dated the boys I liked, knowing about my feelings for each of them and then acted innocent. It felt like reading about me. - Reasoning Anon

Anonymous said:And the worst part is that I felt exactly the same way OC did. I just can't be mean to people. No matter how much I despise them. No matter how much they hurt or angered me. Because then I feel so evil, so I let it happen. Then I leash out on other people who never did (Jungkook). I just let them hurt me. And then I feel guilty about having mean thoughts about them. And when OC thought and felt like the asshole, the monster ... man. I already hate this story, go away 😩 - Reasoning Anon

Anonymous said:the oc in new rules is like waaay too kind to her "best friend", why would a "best friend" sabotage a girl's chance to get with a guy who genuinely likes her i still don't understand. it doesn't matter if the "best friend" likes the guy, i am betting the oc is some martyr to be that sacrificial. i would drop my "best friend" if she tried that on me

Anonymous said:LIVID. I'm so angry that Mijoo never gave OC Jimin's confession note, then had the nerve to involve OC as she was stressing over him. I'm frustrated that OC puts Mijoo on a pedestal just bc she's pretty, & seems to see Mijoo as more deserving of happiness than herself. Mijoo is a snake & deserves to be exposed bc she did both Jimin and OC dirty by not giving her his note. She deprived them both of what they wanted, & any relationship she now has w Jimin is tainted by what she did to him a yr ago

Anonymous said:I can only hope that Jimin wakes up and realizes what a snake Mijoo is. With a girl like her, I doubt their relationship can work out (or at least that's what I hope).

Anonymous said:mijoo gotta go

Anonymous said:I'm in love with new rules omg if I found out my best friend hid something like that from me I would be livid I don't know how she kept her cool. Can't wait for the next part! 💖💖💖

Anonymous said:Omg her friend is a snake and she's too forgiving 🤧😫😩 I just want to grab OC's shoulders and shake some sense into her, she's allowed to be angry at her friend, she's deserves to be happy too. I'm excited to see how the rest of this story is gonna develop, I really love all your writing. You have such a way with words that makes me feel like I watching a movie rather than just reading a story. 👌❤️👌

bangtanboys-hoe said:This may be the bitch in me talking but I would've made her feel like shit. I would move out, block her number, and tell Jimin everything. I would've made her life a living hell hole. But this is just a story and I'm too nice of a person to do that.

Anonymous said:okay first how's your day, how you're doing. And second MIJOO IS SUCH A BITCH NO FUCK FHAT. WHAT HAPPENED TO LOYALTY, OC GAVE UP HER LIVE AND MIJOO DECIDED TO TAKE IT DOE SELF. FUCK JIMIN (I love you jimin) BUT BOTH OF THEM FUCK UP THEIR FRIENDSHIP. I couldn't even enjoy the smut I'm so mad. Plus GOOD JOB ON THE NEW CHAPTER! It's really good! Hope you have a good day :)

Anonymous said:Fuck mijoo AHHSGAHHDH WHY WHY WHY

omg im very overwhelmed by the incredible response to ch 2 of new rules and i feel so bad but i srsly cant answer all of your messages. But the intense reactions this fic inspired is so shocking yet understandable. I just hope you all aren’t too upset and that you can have an open mind for the next chapter ^^

#new rules #jaaneman-s #lu answers

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yuki-d-raizel-blog · 7 years

Text

Hero

Chapter 15/??

Relationship: Todoroki Shouto x Reader (Your/Name), (Full/Name)

Summit: It all begin at the Sports Festival when Shouto’s other half met Endevour by mistake. The student never thought to see his partner fight against his father just to show him that he is wrong. It started from that instant, Shouto’s new path started exactly from that moment thanks to his friends and his beloved one.

---

While you chat laughing and eating, someone rings the bell. It’s dark outside, who is at this hour? Shouto goes to check and finds his elder sister with a bag on her hands. The half-half boy lets her in and prepares something warm, is cold outside. When the lady sees how (Y/N) is, she dropped the bag shocked.

<<G-good evening, miss.>> “She is gonna yell at me too?” <<Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, a few days and I will be like before…>>

<<How could I?>> she hugs you tightly, <<You are someone special for my little brother, you helped him a lot since you two started seeing each other! You’re like a little sister for me!>>

<<Nee-san, you are hurting her.>> Todoroki serves a cup of hot tea and sits to keep eating his dinner, <<Don’t hug her so tight, she is injured.>>

When you were asleep in the metro, Shouto texted his sister Fuyumi, to inform her that he will not be at home, he would spend the night over (Y/N)’s place. Read the message, she chose a few clean clothes to bring to him, and she did it. While Fuyumi explains what she brought, her eyes are often locked on your figure; you can’t hold well the fork so even eating is a problem.

<<Shouto, you found someone really amazing.>> she whispers to him, <<Treasure her a lot. She deserves it.>>

<<There’s a few things that I need to understand about her, but you don’t need to say it.>> he responds while accompanying the sibling outside, <>

“He looks like a new person. Thank you so much (Y/N), you saved my brother.” <<Good night both of you.>>

After cleaning the kitchen, the two students go upstairs. They brush their teeth and change themselves to go to bed. Once inside the room, (Y/N) turns on the stereo she has on her desk and sets the speaker mode. The melody she was playing before with the piano, is now flying inside the room in its full version. Even if Shouto doesn’t understand much about music, he can clearly distingue a piano, a violin, a harp… What a pure melody.

“The flames of that day are still like before… Once again, I don’t know how to call this feeling. I thought that, that spark was something else, is soaring more and more. It’s a deep feeling that outclass the “love”. What is this? I can talk to her for hours and never get bored, I can tell her anything and she won’t judge me…” when (Y/N) moves under the covers, he can’t resist the urge to keep her as close as possible. Todoroki doesn’t notice that he’s actually suffocating her, that warmth and that physical contact of her, inhaling her scent, all these things calm him like nothing else.

You understand what he’s doing right down, so without make it a burden to him, you ruffle those colored hair and mix the red part with the white one.

<<Hey, what are you up to?>> Shouto doesn’t like when people touch his hair, but the way you did it, it was a lovely and funny sensation, he smiles grabbing and kissing your hands, <<Do I look good?>>

<<Sorry, can’t help myself.>> she laughs at him with those messy hair, <<You look gorgeous, honey.>>

<<If my love says so, then it must be truth.>> this is the first time he laughs, <<Let’s sleep, it->>

<<Where is my phone? I need to record that laugh!>>

<<Haha, where you think you’re going?>> he traps you in his strong hug again, <<You must be in my arms until morning.>>

“This time he hugged me from behind…? He is scared?” <<Shouto, there’s something I want to tell you.>>

<<What is it, my love?>>

<<Don’t be scared of those feelings that are inside your heart right now. Remember them very clearly.>> you intertwine your fingers with his and close your eyes, feeling Todoroki’s hot breath behind your neck, <<This is how it feels when you finally fight back, this is how it feels when you take your life back. This is your new start line.>>

<<Yeah… I hope I don’t screw this up.>>

<<I’m with you, until I’m here, you’re invincible.>>

<> he tights the grip and rests his head in your neck.

<> “He’s my new light. This time, I will protect it with my life! Nobody will blow out its flame.”

---

A very noisy sound is disturbing your sleep. What the hell is it? It costs you a lot to find it without opening your eyes and moving it’s harder since Shouto trapped you. You need to wake him up if you want his grip to loosen, his toned body shows all its strength when the owner sleeps. Finally, you find the phone, push a button and take the call.

<<Hello….?>> you fall again on the bed, but a very familiar voice reaches your ear. Nope, it’s too early for this, <<Yeah, fuck you too….>> “…What time is?” you raise the head from the pillow to see the digital clock, “I’m not a morning person at all… I need to wake him up or he won’t make in time.” <<Dear.>> dragging your body up, you shake a little your lover, <<Shouto, wake up. It’s morning.>>

He keeps his eyes closed and moving like a zombie, he drags his body up.

<<Good morning, honey.>>

<<……M’ning, my love….>> his voice is so sleepy, his head falls on your shoulder like the rest of his body rests on yours.

“In these five months we spent together, I understand some funny things about him. If he doesn’t get more than six hours of sleep, Shouto doesn’t function very well waking up. On top of that, when he goes to bed tired, his bed hair is incredible. Maybe it’s because of his quirk?” <<Don’t fall asleep, hey~>> patting on his back, he pulls up his heavy head again, <<Wow!>>

<<….What?>>

<<It’s unusual for you to drool in your sleep, isn’t it?>> it took a while before he could understand what you said, <<Hahaha.>>

<<Uwah, for real! Crap.>> Shouto wipes the saliva and blushes hard, hiding his mouth, <<….I really let my guard down around you…>>

<<Actually, I was also drooling and messy and stuff, you know?>> you get up and pick some things, <<Go wash your face, okay? Here, a towel.>>

“Her too, huh.” <<Nn….>> he gets off the bed and walks still half asleep with his hair all curled in up.

“Man, I love him so much. Look at his hair, why I can’t take a picture?” <<And brush your teeth, ‘kay?>>

Fortunately, your house is big enough to have two bathrooms, Shouto went instinctively in the main one, so you go in the guest one. Once taken a pair of clean clothes for him, you knock on the door and speak a little louder just in case he is falling asleep again.

<>

<<Nn…>>

---

After a relaxing and lovely breakfast, the students leave the house to go in the hospital where Todoroki’s mom is. During the way, Shouto is nervous, he barely speaks, he’s thinking about what her mother said, every single word, how can he say hi to her without scare the life out of her? The more the distance is reduced, the more his anxiety increase. Once found the room, both of you stop in front of a silver square where there is a name inside: Mrs. Todoroki.

“Since that day, I thought that my presence would put pressure on my mom, so I never went to see her. I’m sure she continues to be bound by me… by dad… That’s why, in order to aim to become a hero again with this body, with everything I have…” he stretches his arm towards the handle but he stops.

<<Shouto.>> a sweet and kind whisper flies into his ear and a warm hand touches his, <<In front of you there is your starting line to become the hero you want to be. Step forward without fear.>> you kiss his hand and guide it back to the handle, <<I’ll be in the waiting room of this floor. I won’t move until you’re done, take all the time you need, ok?>>

<<Thanks.>> he gives to her his bag so he can’t be bothered by anyone, and finally open the door.

It’s past noon and you get something to eat since you need to take meds, you are thinking that Recovery Girl wants to kill you with those because you were too reckless. Got the lunch, you return to your seat and eat. Read the book you brought while eating quietly, something buzz.

“If it’s my grandma again, I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind!” it’s from Todoroki’s bag, “His phone?” you wanted only to check who was, but when the name “Dad” appeared on the screen… You must see what he wants, he’s not gonna ruin this important moment.

Unlocked the phone and opened the chat, a message is there, “My son, you know probably why I’m here.”

“Let’s settle this thing too. Ooh this is gonna be fun!” the girl types the message and sends it.

[Yeah, to get on my nerves.]

[I’m very disappointed in you, my son.]

[Disappointed my ass… What do you want?]

[What’s this attitude? You put shame to your family.]

[Like you put shame on your mustache… Anyway, how did I?]

[You held back in the finals in the festival.]

[I sure did. Problem?]

[There is a problem. I’ve raised you to surpass All Might not to throw away the first place.]

[You’ve raised me to pull you down from your pedestal. Watch out, the more you’re high, the more the fall will be painful.]

[Wait… You are….]

[Hi, it’s your worst nightmare again. How are doing cocksucker?]

[Where’s Shouto? Why you have his phone?]

[Shouto is busy right now. I have his phone so you won’t get in his way.]

[What? I’ve should teach you a lesson that day.]

[That’s my line. You need to fuck off for a while, but after thinking a lot about it, I’m ready to apologize to you, if you are able to defeat me and show me that you can be a good guide for your son.]

[Beat you? Pff, you’re playing with fire kid.]

[You too fucker. Be careful to not burn yourself. Tomorrow, late morning; be sure to be at home.]

---

In the late afternoon, Todoroki leaves the room and looks for you. He finds you sit on a chair, reading a book with earphones. You look so peaceful and content, and the colorful sunset gives to you something that warms up his chest. He approaches you and grabs gently your shoulder, when your gazes cross each other, you see a relieved face.

<<Before you tell me anything, I hope you don’t mind I used your phone.>> giving back his bag, she puts the book and the iPod inside hers, <<Fuyumi-san called. I picked up saying that you are going home late.>>

<<Thanks for that.>> both of you start to walk slowly and the girl is listening carefully what Shouto has to say.

---

Todoroki prepares the dinner while keep talking about his mother. You are deeply reviled that his mom listened to his son and forgave him, even if he didn’t nothing wrong for you. After the meal, the students chill on the wide living room. While he talks, tears fall from his eyes, surprising him.

<<What?>> he gets up from your lap and touches his wet cheeks, <<Why?>>

The girlfriend takes his hand and leads him to the piano. She sits and forces him to lay on her lap again. When Todoroki was about to ask what she’s doing, (Y/N) starts to play a new melody. This time is strong and sad at the same time.

<<My mom always said: “Rain falls because clouds cannot handle longer its weight; just like tears fall because the heart cannot handle the pain or the joy.”>> she keeps playing while he turns and hugs her hiding his face, <<It’s ok crying, even heroes do it. You can cry today and become stronger tomorrow.>>

When Todoroki calms down, he takes your hand and intertwines his fingers with yours. Shouto gets up from your lap, kisses the back of your hand, your cheek and rests his head on your shoulder.

<<Are you feeling more tranquil now?>> you say looking at him with the corner of your eye.

<<Yeah.>> his voice sounds calm too, crying was a good thing for him.

<<Moreover, what do you want to do? It’s late, wanna stay over?>>

<>

<<To visit my mom. Will you come with me?>> the man asks what happened when he felt the grip on his hand be tighter, <<If you are with me I can do anything. It’s been a while since I went to see her… I always felt guilty and bad, but I guess it’s time to visit her again, I need to move on too.>>

<<Then, it’s settled.>> Todoroki kisses you and goes to pick his coat and his new keys with a happy face. In front of the door, he turns facing her and gives her a passionate kiss that she gladly accepts. Pulling away, he hugs you as if to inhale for the last time your scent, <<I’m going.>>

<<Be careful on your way back.>> seeing him walking down the street is a new and strange emotion for you, “Be always around you? I actually can’t ask for more.” turning off all the lights and get ready to bed, she closes her eyes cuddled by Shouto’s scent on the sheets, “He was drooling… Hahaha, next time I’ll take a picture. Guess he was right too; I never realized how big this house is for one person... How about two? It’ll be interesting and funny to find that out.”

---Continue...

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21.5, 22, 22.5, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Last Chapter

#todoroki shouto #shouto todoroki #midoriya izuku #bnha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha scenarios #fanfictions #deku midoriya #anime #manga

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